Truer Lies
by Tea and Mystery
Summary: Lana didn't want to be in a building housing the god of mischief, much less in the same room as him. But the Earth, as always, is in mortal peril, and the newly reorganized SHIELD 'requested' her help, making her life even more chaotic than it already was. And with a chaotic blur taking a liking to her, her life will never see the light of organization again. AU Post AoU.
1. Up in Flames

**Hi! This is AoU, in an au format. A couple of major things from AoU don't here, namely being PIETRO DOESN'T DIE. Because basically, OC. There might be romance, there might not be. But it will be a rather dynamic relationship between the OC and Loki no matter what, rest assured. It depends on what everybody wants. So, review, favourite, and follow so I know whether I should keep writing or not. But seriously, reviews will inspire me and give me ideas! Enjoy! Also, like a lot of OC-centric stories, this is AU.**

* * *

Today had started out normal, well early, actually. But absolutely normal. That is until, of course, Lana Lazar was called into work.

She groggily pushed her phone, which had just let out an annoying chirp, with one hand, causing it to hit the floor.

"Wha-" she grumbled. She glared bleary eyed at the clock across from her bed. 5:54 AM.

"Bastards." she proclaimed as she nearly fell out of her bed, reaching for her fallen phone. _Be ready in half an hour. Same drop point as last time._ "Bastards." she repeated. She stood, and walked over to where the light switch was, patting the bare wall before finally flicking it, light streaming onto her face. She winced as she stumbled over to her bathroom, and turned on the shower.

"I'm gonna be late." She mumbled, realizing it would take her longer than half an hour to get ready. But then again, they did give her almost no notice. _Payback, this is payback for disturbing my beauty slee_p, she thought childishly.

After taking longer than she should have washing her hair, she stepped towards her closet, her towel loosely hanging from her frame. She spun around, looking to the one window that graced the wall of her apartment. She wondered how cold it was outside. She threw open the window, and was rewarded with a face full of snow.

"Cold, then. Okay, good to know." she said to herself, blinking at the snow stuck in her eyelashes as she closed the heavy window. She reached for the parka hanging in her closet, and threw it onto her bed.

After dressing lightly under her parka, knowing that she would more than likely be heading to the Avengers Facility, she grabbed her keys and her bag and headed out her door, down the steps, and onto the ever-busy streets of New York City.

It was busy when her journey began, the snowflakes tangling into her hair. But as she walked down countless alleys, she saw people less and less, which made her hold her coat closer to her body, not out of cold, but the cold feeling of desolation. She finally wound up on a side street where a single agent was waiting for her, tapping his foot impatiently.

She walked to the ominous black SUV, where the SHIELD lackey waited for her. She was late. Very late, she knew this. But to be honest, she didn't really care.

"You're late." he stated as she approached, opening the door for her, glaring at her.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." She snarked back. She made herself comfortable as he started the car, and drove through the concrete jungle that was New York City.

"So, do you have a name?" She asked the stoic agent. She didn't actually want to know, but she couldn't stand the silence, and a little voice in the back of her head told her he wouldn't appreciate the radio being turned on. Conversation was the next logical step.

"Meyers." Well, wasn't he just the most talkative person in the world?

"Well, nice to meet you, Meyers." she said awkwardly. He just nodded his head once before continuing the drive to the airfield where a quin-jet would be waiting for her, in complete silence. She sighed. Well, at least she was trying to be friendly, she thought to herself. She chided herself for even trying to make conversation; even after the total revamp of SHIELD after the HYDRA snafu, the SHIELD agents that she had encountered were still silent and moody. She shouldn't have even bothered.

The white of the snow was almost ubiquitous, obscuring most of her view, when they arrived at their location. As she opened the car door, she braced herself against the January blizzard.

"Thanks." she yelled over her shoulder. The agent in the car didn't say a word as she closed the door, and drove away without a glance back. _Truly, such a _pleasant _person._

"Never trying to actually have a conversation again." she told herself as she shook her head, walking up to the jet, and up the ramp that would close quickly behind her.

The agent flying the jet looked at her scornfully as Lana entered the cockpit.

"You're late." She plainly stated, returning to her console, starting the climb into the sky as soon as Lana sat down beside her.

"That's what Captain Obvious said, too." she grinned, trying to make the mood less tense. "So, the Facility, then?" she clasped her hands together, trying to make them less chilled from the weather outside, because she had foolishly forgot her gloves.

"No. The Helicarrier." was the abrupt answer she was given, and Lana rolled her eyes and strapped herself in one of the jump seats that was beside the agent, and mentally prepared herself for the ride that was no doubt going to silent.

* * *

As she emerged from the quin-jet, an agent waiting for her outside grabbed her hand and raced with her inside where there was breathable air. The agent took his oxygen mask off to reveal a kind faced man in his twenties.

"Ah, the only SHIELD agent who's capable of an actual conversation." Lana laughed as she hugged the man. He hugged her back.

"Jake." she said as she smiled as he let go and led her down one of the claustrophobic hallways of the Helicarrier. "You have no idea how glad it's you that has flight deck duty."

"So, you _like_ me freezing to death waiting for you. You're almost an hour late." he chided. She smiled, knowing that he was joking, at least partially.

"I'm sorry." she whined, trying to keep up with his long strides, almost darting. "I didn't exactly get that much notice." Seeing she was lagging behind, Jake slowed down slightly. "Do you know why I'm here? Or why we're on the Helicarrier? I thought SHIELD had kind of relocated."

"No idea. All I know is about four hours ago, we received two _very_ interesting guests, which is why we're up here." he said with a regal shake of his head, chocolate hair flopping.

"Guests? Oh, do tell." she said eagerly, poking his arm playfully.

"I told you I don't much," he grinned back at her, "but I do know they're Asgardian."

"Asgardian? Seriously?" What business would the Asgardians have here, other than Avenger-ing? Lana narrowed her eyes, thinking of the possibilities.

"Well, considering one of them is Thor, yeah." Her eyes widened at the implications of Thor being there.

"Know who the other one is?" He stopped suddenly.

"Yeah, I do." her eyes begged him to continue as another agent brushed past them in the narrow hallway, giving them a glance. His demeanor changed, and Lana knew she wasn't going to like the answer.

"Who is it? Who's the other one?" she pressed, her gut clenching. _Please don't let it be, please don't let it be-_

"Loki." he replied rubbing his face, waiting for her outburst.

"WHAT?" she shrieked at him. He quickly put his hand over her mouth to prevent anymore shrieks. He waited a moment before cautiously removing his hand, unsure what she would do.

"What?" she repeated again, albeit, much to his relief, quieter. "Why the _hell_ is that murderer here?"

"I really don't know."

"How could they let him come here? Shouldn't he be in prison or something? One really far away?" she clenched and unclenched her fists slowly.

"Lana, I really don't know. I'll give you a minute, but then I have to get you to the conference room." she looked at him with a pleading look.

"Fine. Two minutes." She rested her head against his chest, where he awkwardly stroked her hair while she tried to control her breathing.

"Listen," he whispered, pulling away after the two minutes were up. "I know what happened to your brother, but no screeching, no kicking, no screaming. Just sit and _listen_." she nodded, fire brewing in her eyes, before putting her head back on his chest. Her muffled voice asked something that he didn't quite catch.

"What was that?" he asked.

Lana spoke in a small voice. "What about stabbing?"

"Uh, probably not the best of ideas at this moment, I'm afraid."

"You're no fun." she pouted, all the while wishing he would recant his refusal of the maiming of Loki.

"No, you're right; I'm _smart_." He said in a posh, arrogant voice, a grin escaping from his lips at the end. She made a sound in protest and slapped him on the arm. He snorted. "But are we in agreement? No loud business?" She nodded her reply.

"Okay, good." he took her silence as confirmation of her compliance. "Now let's get going; you were supposed to be there an hour ago." He took her hand and once again led her to the conference room. He left her as she prepared herself to walk took a deep breath walked into the room.

"Nice of you to join us, Ms. Lazar. Now, sit your ass down so we can get this thing on the road." Fury greeted her. Not wanting his one-eyed death stare, she quickly obliged and sat down in an empty seat between Hill and Barton.

She looked around the room. There were nine people situated around the table. Director Fury and Agent Hill sat together, as did agents Romanov and Barton. She had met the four of them before. She was on amicable terms with Natasha, who frightened her with her 'I'm an assassin who can kill you several different ways with my bare hands' routine. Clint, however, in recent months had become a friend to her, much to her surprise.

She gave the them a nod, which wasn't returned, but Clint smirked at her.

Anthony Stark, of course, looked at the new arrival and gave an enthusiastic wave and a wink, which Lana returned an awkward grimace meant to be a smile. She had never met him before, luckily, or she was sure she would have been met with some annoying nickname, which she had heard he gave practically everyone he'd met, according to Clint, who she heard had many _interesting_ names.

She saw who she assumed to be Banner beside him, then Steve Rodgers. Banner was an unknown to her besides the fact that he could miraculously turn into a giant raging green monster who could tear her limb from limb. She had met the Captain briefly a few months before, but never held a conversation with him.

Situated next to the good Captain was obviously Thor, his muscles bulging dangerously. She had only seen him on television. And beside him of course, giving a small smirk, was Loki himself. She knew all about him, or at least what she could get from the SHIELD database that she wasn't _actually_ supposed to have access to. Lana had to remind herself not say anything as Fury began to speak.

"Thor, please, start." he said, sighing as he sat back into his chair.

The golden haired god nodded his head. "Our gatekeeper, Heimdall has informed me of possible magic usage on Midgard." He was met with awkward silence. "This planet." He clarified.

"In the future, Point Break, this planet is called _Earth_. You might wanna keep that in mind." Anthony Stark said, swaying side to side in his rolly chair.

Thor nodded. "As I have said, Heimdall believes that there is an force at work on your world, one that he has never seen the likes of in his existence. There is a dark magic here." Thor continued. "There have been strange things happening over your planet, and its people, and-"

"Basically, weird shit is happening. We found seven people, two days ago, here, in New York, turned inside out. Before that, eight people two weeks ago in Newark, in different locations all over the city." Fury finished, Thor apparently going to slow for his liking. A screen was turned on behind the director's head. Lana wasn't much for gore, and just the implied gore that was shown on the screen was enough to make her shiver. The bodies depicted literally looked like the skin had been turned inside out before being sewn back up with the skeleton and organs still inside, except there were no stitch marks of any sort. It almost made her gag, but she stayed silent, choosing to instead focus on her fingernails.

"There weren't any knife marks, and no other discernible ways to see how this happened. Which is why," his face turned to a look of disgust, "Thor has brought Loki." he said that name with disdain and contempt of the highest degree, "to 'help'. In anyway that he can," Lana's eyes grew wide. Loki? Helping? It almost made her laugh. "and not try to take over the world and its inhabitance."

"I wouldn't dare." the man in question said, with a smooth voice and a disarming smile. Actually he could probably remove someone's arms with that smile. His eyes, too, were full of mischief, and hint of sardonic malice. Actually, it was a bit more than a hint; more along the lines of the Grand Canyons of sardonic malice, if there were such a thing. Lana glared at him, and wished she was able to smack that smile off of his face.

"Yeah, sure." Fury shook his head, appearing to Lana that he couldn't believe what he was doing. Lana couldn't either. "Which is why," he gestured to all of them, "we need you all. To keep him in line." Lana pointed to herself, as if to say 'really?', which Fury, unperceived by anyone else except but Loki, nodded his head slightly. Loki quickly glanced back in her direction, smirking when he saw her. Something told her thing wasn't going to end well. Not well at all.

"As much as I hate to admit it, he is apparently the only one who knows enough about 'magic'," the director air quoted, almost not believing the word, "to help. Because, we've got nothing as to how any of this happened. There was no security footage, pictures, or anything. Just a whole lotta nothing."

"Your information packets are waiting back at Stark's tower. I would just love to go into detail as to what you'll be doing," he really didn't look that way, Lana thought, "I have the council hounding my ass, and I don't have time to do deal with everyone's bullshit. You're all adults." He said glancing over Lana the longest out of anyone. It looked like he regretted that, too, bringing her here, that was.

Stark spoke up. "Not that I don't _looooove_ everybody here, Nick, but why can't he," he jabbed in Loki's general, "just stay up here."

"Because last time that mofo was here, he nearly crashed the Helicarrier _and_ unleashed the Hulk. And I don't need the Hulk on board again to help crash it. No offence, Banner."

Banner raised his hands. "None taken."

Fury went back to Stark. "I assume you can handle him." nodding to Loki. "Loki's a lot of things, but even_ he_ can't crash a building. The twins will be even more of a cushion once they're off assignment." A gleam Lana noticed in the trickster's eyes gave her the impression that he would certainly rise to the challenge. _Why? Why do I have to be here?_

He continued. "Stark has commandeered a jet. Take off is in fifteen minutes. Dismissed." Lana edged to the door, before being called back by Fury.

"Not you, Lazar. I need to talk to you." she gave him a disbelieving look as everyone filed past her, Clint messing up her hair with his hand as he passed. She gave him the two finger salute.

"Good luck, kiddo." Stark patted her on the shoulder as he walked out, closing the door behind him. What a strange man, she thought.

"What the hell?" she exclaimed. "I should _not_ be here." she flapped her arms around, gesturing wildly at nothing in particular. "Not with _that_." she clenched her knuckles in anger until they were white with the lack of blood. "My brother is _dead_ because of him. I have no family now because of _him_," she laughed a hysterical laugh, "and yet, you made me be in the _same room as him_." her sentenced pitched at the end, almost like she was asking a question. Although a rhetorical one, of course.

"I know it's going to be difficult," he began, "but you need to be there."

"Why?" she fell into a chair in disbelief.

"My brother _died_. I will not be in building, much less a room with him."

"I'm not exactly giving you a choice."

"Seriously?" she angrily spun her chair around before stopping again, red faced. "What do you even need me for, though? You have the _Avengers_. The Earth's protectors and all that jazz. And actually," she thought for a moment, before shaking her head, "do you even have the authority to make me? Last time I checked, SHIELD was a bit wonky with ownership these days."

"Yes, I can make you. And why you're here? Because you're the most accurate human lie detector I've ever met." he stated. "Loki might be here to 'help' us, but I don't trust him as far as I can throw him. Which is also why we're up here today, and not at the new facility." Had he heard her talking to Jake? He really did have eyes and ears everywhere.

"You said 'human' lie detector. In case you haven't noticed, he isn't human!" she exclaimed, falling back into her chair, groaning in exasperation.

"You're the best we got. You don't have to be near him, just make sure he isn't lying.

'Isn't lying' she mouthed to herself. "He's the friggin' god of lies, Nick! Make sure he isn't lying? He's probably never even told the truth in his life!"

"We aren't saying it's ideal, but-"

"But what? He killed a lot of people because he could. He killed my _brother_. He destroyed a lot of things because _he could_."

"Listen." he said with a voice that commanded her to be silent. "I don't like him being here. As soon as I possibly can, his ass is getting kicked back to Asgard or wherever the hell he came from, preferably in chains and irons. But right now," Fury walked towards the door, "he knows more about what's going on here than we do."

"How are you so sure? How do you know he didn't cause this, just to leave Asgard? Or if he's just along for the ride and he has no idea what's even going on here?"

"We don't. That's why you're here."

"That's really reassuring. You expect me to be able to tell. Didn't Thor catch him kind of recently? Wasn't he impersonating the _King of Asgard_? And the _Asgardians_ didn't even realize it?" she let out a short laugh. "He got away with that for a decent amount of time, didn't he? So now he's probably just gonna kill everyone, because he can."

"No, he won't." Fury said firmly. "Barton'll be following him, damn everyone in that building will be following him, making sure he doesn't step out of line. If you're lucky, Clint will shoot him in the ass." She smiled at that, knowing Clint would make it his goal in life to do so, even without the director's permission. "Stark's tower is gonna be on high alert. We've added a hundred SHIELD agents in and around the building. The twins will be there soon enough. All of the people who stopped him before in one place, plus more? He ain't doing anything. And Anthony Stark? That man is insane, but he knows security." he finished. "And I expect you to do your job."

"Your information packet at the tower will tell you more. I would explain further, but I don't have the time. Now," he pointed to her as he got up off his seat and moved towards the door, "shoo. Stark's jet leaves in ten minutes."

She continued standing, staring at him like he was to say 'Just Kidding'. But he didn't, and repeated again, "Go."

"At least I only have to be in that building for a couple hours a day." she muttered, heading for the door, brushing past his chair.

"Actually," he began, making he slowly turn around, feeling dread in the bottom of her stomach. "You'll being staying at Stark's tower, too. Try not to make a mess." she spluttered in disapproval, and was staring back at him until his glare was severe enough to make her wince. Oh, no, she thought as she headed to the waiting jet, a mess was most certainly what she going to make, probably one of her own entrails and blood that Loki would yank from her body, laughing the whole time.

* * *

She mumbled under her breath about her situation as she headed to the flight deck, stopping at room that was just before the frigid outside. Everyone except Stark was waiting there as well.

"Where'd Stark go?" she moaned. He was their host, after all.

"Something about needing to stop by one of the labs." Banner replied, shaking his head. "Which, I really don't understand why." The way he said made Lana's heart sink; she didn't know what Fury was talking about making a 'mess'. Stark was perfectly capable of doing that on his own.

"I've learned to stop questioning Stark. You'll just hurt yourself if you do." Natasha said, picking at her nails.

"Noted and filed." Lana said, going up to the wall beside Natasha and began lightly hitting her head on the wall, realizing how horrible her situation was. She had to live in the Tower. With all of the Avengers AND Loki._ Nope, nope, nope._

"Aw, come on, Lana. What Fury said couldn't have been _that_ bad." Clint spoke up from beside Natasha.

"Oh yes. Yes it could." she replied, still hitting her head on the wall.

"Really?" he raised his eyebrows.

"I have to stay in the tower with Stark, all of you," she said glaring up at him, and then pointing to behind her, at Loki, "and _that_." Loki narrowed his eyes in response to being called a 'that'.

"Fair enough." the archer nodded his head.

All of them looked to the door as it was thrown open. "So, why's she hitting her head? What'd you do, Legolas?" Stark said, entering the room, dragging a large suitcase.

Clint just stared at him, glaring at the fact he had just been called a bow-toting elf.

"Stark, that'd better not be what I think it is." the Captain said, staring at the suitcase like it was plotting world domination.

"Course not, Cap. What would give you that impression?" Stark replied, and Lana shook her head. She really didn't want to know.

* * *

The flight to Stark's tower was fairly uneventful, except, for of course, Stark himself. Lana thought that she talked a lot sometimes, but Stark was beyond that. He would just not shut up.

"So, Lana," he had said to her, sitting across from her. He talked to her now after bothering literally every other person on the jet, sans Loki, who she guessed was off limits for the time being to make fun of, "what are you bringing to the potluck?"

She raised her eyebrows and gave him an incredulous look, as if to say 'really?', because she had made it rather clear that she didn't want to talk after ignoring him multiple times before, and at the time he bothered the Captain instantly, multiple times, actually.

"C'mon. You can tell me! What're you bringing?" Stark pried.

"A headache." she snapped back at him. She had been most upset on this flight, for the obvious reason that a one 'Loki' was present and still breathing. She held her head in her hands.

"Nah, that can't be it. How about laser vision? Laser vision would be cool." he joked, not getting that she was slightly serious.

She practically glared lasers at him with her eyes before looking down again, trapped in the depths of despair. She then thought for a moment. "Arsenic laced Macaroni and Cheese."

He shook his head at her antics. "But seriously, why did Fury bring you in? I think we're covered with a female fatale." he gestured to the woman in question, who was piloting the jet, Clint alongside her.

"Quite, honestly, Stark-" she began before being cut off.

"Tony." she rolled her eyes at him.

"Quite honestly, _Stark_, I have a killer headache. I'm sure what I'm doing here will be explained in your packet." She sighed loudly. "But for the love of whatever god _isn't_ Asgardian," she said, looking to the two Asgardians, who were both now looking at her, "shut up."

"Hear, hear." was Clint's response from upfront.

"Thanks, Clint. Always a pleasure." she could be heard saying, with her head yet again in her hands. Her head quickly shot up as she whipped it to face Stark, her mood changed suddenly, like a light switch was switched. "Do you have a library?"

He nodded slowly, being wary of her sudden change. "Yeah, actually, I do. Why?"

"Can I use it? I like books."

"Knock yourself out. But don't actually; I don't want to have to explain to Fury how you got knocked out with book." She laughed, a genuine laugh, very different from her sombre mood. Her teeth were very white, he noticed.

"Don't worry, I'll try not to." she chuckled as they all felt the jet land with a jolt.

* * *

**So, did we like, or are we throwing rotten fruits and vegetables at me? Lemme know! And in a couple more chapters, there will be Pietro, I promise. It's just taking a little while to do so! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Out of the Frying Pan

**Tada! Second chapter. This is exciting, guys. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favourited so far! I really, really appreciate it.**

* * *

After their rather abrupt landing, Lana flew forward, being caught by the good Captain, who saved her from her demise of slamming into the other side of the craft.

"Are you okay?" he asked with a concerned gleam in his eye, setting her down in an upright position.

"Yep, yep, I'm good." She replied as they all began to exit."Thanks," she began, "I appreciate not being turned into a human pancake." he nodded his head in reply as the all followed Stark.

"Lana, you're a bit clumsy, aren't you?" Stark asked, and was met with said girl glaring daggers at him. He put one of his hands up in mock surrender as he led them all into his 'living room', where he continued to drag whatever was in the suitcase.

The room they entered from the outside was several times the size of Lana's apartment, Stark, after dropping his suitcase on the ground beside him, and set down his 'house rules'. Lana elected to ignore most of what he was saying as she looked around some more, still stunned by how big this one _room_ was.

"Okay, you," he pointed to Loki, glaring at the fallen god, "do not leave, I repeat, do not leave this tower, except with permission and a _giant_ escort." Knowing Stark, he probably meant every SHIELD agent in the building. "And no killing or maiming anyone." He pondered what he had said for a moment, before adding, "Except, maybe, yourself. I wouldn't have a problem with that."

Thor cleared his throat, giving Stark a look, which made Stark retract that statement. "Okay, maybe not." But he continued to nod his head as Thor's giant head veered off to look elsewhere again.

He turned to the rest of his company. "Okay, the rest of you? Ask FRIDAY where your rooms are. I'm going to the lab." He yet again grabbed the suitcase, and walked a couple of feet before turning around to face Banner. "You coming?"

"Actually, I was thinking-" Banner began, before being cut off.

"C'mon? What's the worst that could happen?" Stark said, wagging his eyebrows. "I got a new toy." he said gesturing to the suitcase. _I don't know, maybe something blowing up_? Lana thought. The way Banner looked, he probably thought that, too.

"Do you really have to ask that question?" Banner sighed, as he shook his head, and followed Stark out of the room. "Is it really-"

"What you think it is?" Stark asked, before finishing the question. "Yep." Lana _really_ didn't want to know. Actually, maybe Lana needed to figure out what was in the suitcase to keep what little sanity she had left intact. Banner sighed, and left the room with Stark, Stark sending one last suspicious glance towards the god of mischief before leaving the room.

"Come, Loki." Thor said suddenly, gesturing for Loki to follow him. "We shall ask FRIDAY where our rooms are located." Loki remained stubbornly still, almost daring Thor to make him.

"Loki." Thor said again, an edge of threat to his voice. Loki glared at him, but aquested, and followed Thor after he had attained their rooms' locations. Clint followed behind, not trusting Loki for a second it looked like, but then again, who would?

Natasha and left soon afterwards, talking on her phone, presumably to Fury, informing him of the little that had happened.

The Captain stood awkwardly around for a moment, before sitting on a massive couch. She would have sat down beside him, but she wasn't really in the mood for socialization, and instead, asked FRIDAY where the library was.

"_Two floors down, Ms. Lazar_."

"Thank you."

"_You're quite welcome_."

"Okay, then." She nodded her head awkwardly at the Captain, who just as awkwardly returned it, and walked to where she assumed the stairwell was, which turned out to be a pantry. A pantry was the only word Lana could think of, because it wasn't quite a pantry; more like a giant wine basement, but with more scotch than anything else. This room, too, was larger than her apartment. She shook her head and closed the door.

"_Oh, yeah, Lana._" Stark's voice crackled over the intercom.

"What, Stark?" she sighed, annoyed that he had literally just left, and he was still bothering her.

"_Dinner at seven in the kitchen. Don't be late. Be sure to wear that smile that you wear sooooo much_."

She sighed again, rubbing her eyes, and tried the next door, ignoring Stark. She really wasn't looking forward to dinner. All of them? Sitting at one table with knifes and forks? Maybe she could just skip? Or, maybe, she could stab Loki with a fork to the hand before being brutally torn apart and murdered? That would work, too.

* * *

After eventually finding the library, and spending several hours in it, reading Stark's beyond massive book collection, which included many first editions, she found her way to her room and proceeded to flop onto the bed. When, she was in the library, though, she couldn't help but feel like _something_ or _someone_ was watching her. She had the annoying prickle on the back of her neck on and off for the entire time that she was there.

She glanced at the time given to her on a black desk: 6:49. She groaned, realizing she was more than likely going to have to go and socialize with _people_. Normally she would be all for talking and laughing, but Loki was probably going to be there, and it was not worth the emotional damage it would cause her to deal with him. Because to be honest, he would probably see the fork coming for his hand a mile off, and it would end up in her eye.

"Bah humbug." She continued being potato like on her bed for the next several minutes, deciding to forgo dinner in lieu of getting dinner later when she went to pick up some of her things from her apartment, which she would have to do now, because she had to stay in the godforsaken tower. She decided to flip through her packet on the Avengers, and discovered it wasn't a physical copy, but in fact a file on the holographic projection system on the desk provided in her room. When looking through Stark's file, she noticed the inactive status in the Avenger's Initiative. She snorted. Like Stark would ever actually be inactive from something like that.

"_Hey, Laaaaana._" She heard Stark's voice again, speaking of the devil himself.

"What now?" she groaned again.

"_Looks like dinner's gonna have to wait_."

"Why, exactly?" she tried to sound annoyed, but was internally relieved. Dinner was a no-no.

"_They found more bodies. They're like the other ones. All turned inside out and that fun stuff_."

Stark continued, and excited tone to his words."_Do you know what that means_?"

"People are, oh, I dunno, dead, maybe?" She really hoped she wouldn't have to go. After all, it's not like she could tell whether the gory bodies were lying or not.

_"That, aaaannd... Field trip!_"

"Oh, god." This was not going to end well.

_"Yes, actually! So, c'mon, up and at 'em, Whizkid! We're in need of your lie detection skills._" She perked up, wondering who she was going to have to validate.

"So you read your packet, then?" She thought for a moment. "And Whizkid? Really?"

"_Yeah, really! And_ o_f course I did! I _always_ do the reading. I'm offended that you think I wouldn't!_"

"Yeah, sure. Are you suuuuuure you didn't look up a summary? Because I'll admit, it is a bit long." Something sounded off about his voice. He was actually trying to lie, at least in part, to her. He shouldn't have bothered, if he'd read the file.

"_Summary? Now, where would I get that_?"

"I'm assuming FRIDAY could probably do it for you."

"_I dislike you._"

"The feelings mutual." she chuckled at his silence. He was probably pouting. "So, where exactly am I meeting you guys?"

"_Downstairs. Ten minutes._" The comm clicked, indicating communication had been ended.

"Downstairs isn't vague at all, now is it?" she muttered to herself, grabbing her parka that she had thrown on the other side of the enormous bed.

* * *

She arrived at the level where they had all departed ways from each other earlier, figuring that was most likely meant by 'downstairs'. She was met with the sight of Stark, who was donning his iron suit.

"Is that really necessary? We're going to look at bodies, not to go fight a war."

"I agree with that." said the Captain, entering the room from the same way that Lana had come from. He was wearing his civilian clothes, meaning he didn't expect there to be that much trouble. "Stark, take it off."

"That desperate for some action, Cap?" The Captain stepped forward. "But I just put it on." he whined. The Captain raised an eyebrow, almost daring Stark to argue with him.

"Fine, but if there's trouble, 'I'm telling you I told you so!'"

"I wouldn't expect any less." he turned to Lana, the whirring of Stark's suit in the background as it was removed from his body. "Ma'am." he nodded his head in her direction.

"Please don't call me ma'm; you make me feel like a school teacher. Lana will do just fine, as far as I'm concerned." she said with wide eyes, looking around her, suddenly noticing how modern yet ornate the room was.

"Lana, then."

"Thank you." She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Stark entering his enormous scotch closet. "STARK." she called out. "How about you don't drink right before we go to a crime scene?"

"I don't know about you, but I need a drink." he replied, uncorking a glass bottle of what she assumed was some sort of very expensive scotch. He grabbed a glass from behind his 'mini' bar.

"Drink it when you get back." she said too late, as he practically downed the glass in one gulp.

He was about to pour another one when the others arrived, and Natasha took the glass out of his hand at lightning speed.

"Time and a place, Stark." she said stoically as she took the bottle from him as well, practically ripping it from his hand.

* * *

There was no blood. That was the first thing Lana noticed as they arrived on the scene, the group, minus Banner, who had insisted on staying at the Tower, had anything crazy happened. They had all been carried in three menacing SUVs, where she unfortunately had to be in the same car as Loki.

_"Lady Lana! How will you be assisting us on this day?" the God of Thunder had asked her from the back seat._

_"Just another set of eyes, I guess. And please, Lana." she replied, trying to reveal much of why she was there, considering that reason was sitting in the back seat beside Thor._

_"Are you employed as an agent, Lana?" he questioned, a child-like curiosity in his voice._

_She snorted. "No, most certainly not." she said in a voice of contempt._

_"And why not?"_

_"I don't really feel like becoming an assassin. Bit too cold feeling for me."_

_"Hey!" Clint looked over at her from the driver's seat. _

_"Except you, Clint." she patted his arm. "You're an exception." she said in an affectionate voice. "Barely an exception, but an exception none the less."_

_Clint glared at her from playfully narrowed eyes, before turning back to face the road. Lana began laughing, and couldn't stop._

_"I would prefer for this trip to be made in _silence_." Loki practically hissed from the back, using his voice that she would assume was meant to make people quake in fear. He was doing a decent job._

_"I would prefer you to explode into flames, but I don't think either of us are getting our preferred choices today." That would actually be very nice actually; Loki running off the edge of a bunch of cliffs, on fire. Very nice, indeed._

_"It still remains that you're prattling is pointless. Please do end it."_

_"Oh, make me." she rolled his eyes at him, deciding not to be afraid of him when his rather imposing brother was sitting beside him._

_"Don't tempt me." he threatened._

_"Oh, I wouldn't dare." she said sarcastically._

_"Lana." Clint said in warning. The look on his face was a serious one; no jokes at all. Lana clicked her tongue in annoyance._

_"Hmmpf." she said as they pulled into the alleyway housing the bodies, SHIELD agents cordoning off the scene. She trusted Clint's judgement as to whether it was a smart idea or not to poke the sadistic god with a stick._

She shook her head. Next time she was told to get in a car with Loki, she was going to jump out of the window. One of the only things she remembered from her training was how to roll. She looked around her, standing from her kneeling position. There had to be at least ten bodies here, if not more. At the moment, though, she was a bit too sickened by the scene to really try and count. But actually, it was a bit odd, because Fury had said all of the previous bodies had been scattered around the city, but these were oh-so conveniently placed in one alley. Odd.

"Lana!" Clint called from several feet over. He gestured for her to join them as Loki was giving his prognosis. She dragged herself over there, wishing very much to make herself scarce.

"I do no recognize this form of magic." Loki said after a quick moment next to one of the bodies. His look wasn't what Lana expected it to be; instead of being the arrogant look of a know-it-all, his one was a look of shock, disbelief. He really didn't know what was going on here. Although granted, he could be lying at this very moment, because she had no idea whether she could actually tell whether he was lying or not. That was_ such_ a reassuring thought.

"Are you sure, brother?" Loki flinched at the use of 'brother', before rising to his feet.

"Yes, quite." he replied. "In fact, it might not be magic at all."

"Lana?" Clint looked to the blonde in question of the validity of Loki's statement. She nodded her head, responding to his unspoken question of 'is Loki pulling our legs?'

"From what I can tell, yeah." Thor looked between her in Clint, confusion evident on his face.

"Oh, come on, Point Break, don't tell me _you_ didn't read the packet." Stark said, almost laughing

"Says the one who didn't read _it_." Lana replied.

"I skimmed it!" he said defensively.

"Skimmed it? You had FRIDAY create a summary so you wouldn't have to read it." she was going to continue, before Clint halted her.

"Actually, Stark, that bit of information wasn't given to him." Stark formed his lips in an 'oh', before shutting up. "We'll wait until he's in different company to tell him."

She nodded at Clint, expressing her gratitude. She would hate to think of what Loki would do if he knew that she was encroaching on his territory of lies.

A 'clang' was heard, rather abruptly as Loki turned away from them, kicking of the metal lid of a trash can with the toe of his boot, revealing a dark shape.

"This, however, I do recognize. Though," he back to them, "I've only seen it in the ancient tombs." He gave Thor a look, who nodded back in understanding. His hand gestured to a symbol that was in a red, almost black paint. On closer inspection, though, Lana saw that the liquid used to write it was blood.

"What is it?" she asked, without thinking, forgetting her hatred in that one moment in the quest for knowledge.

"A symbol used to recall the dead." Loki simply said.

"Recall the dead? Like zombies?" she said incredulously. This was not going to end well, at all.

"I do not know these zombies you speak of." he replied, and for the first time, Lana saw a tinge of confusion on his pale features.

"The living dead." she said, scrunching her face into a grimace.

"In essence, yes."

"Great, great." She backed away. "I'm gonna go get my stuff from my apartment, if I'm not needed anymore?" she asked, an almost desperate look on her face.

Rodgers nodded his head. "Go ahead. I don't see why you need to stay." He called over one of the SHIELD agents manning the scene. "Pack the bodies and send them to the Tower for analysis." he commanded, and the agent gave a salute, and hurried away to do what the Captain asked him. _How cute_.

"Okay, thanks." she replied, practically sprinting out of the alley.

"Lana, wait!" Natasha called out. Lana halted, waiting for the red haired assassin to catch up.

"I'll drive you."

"Okay... You really don't have to; I can get a taxi, or you know, use my legs and _walk_." She said, a nervous edge to her voice. Natasha Romanov, wanting to give her a ride? No, not good.

The redhead shook her head. "We need to have a talk." Great, a talk. From an_ assassin_. Could this day _get_ any worse? Stupid question, of course it could.

* * *

**So, just lemme know what you think. And if you have any suggestions, I'm open to them! Pietro will be coming soon!**


	3. And into the Fire

**I've had some serious fun with this chapter. **

* * *

"I talked to Clint." She stared. "Don't egg Loki on. He's dangerous." Natasha told her plainly as soon as they were in the SUV, headed to her hole-in-the-wall apartment.

"No, really? I thought he was a cute bunny rabbit." she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the red heads dramatic words, tapping her foot in irritation.

"He didn't actually kill your brother, you know that, right?" Natasha looked beside her at Lana, raising her eyebrows.

"I know he didn't, not personally, anyway." she said, practically spitting out her words. "But he brought that army here. As far as I'm concerned, he might as well of incinerated Alex himself." She knew that her brother was just a casualty of war deep down, but in the end, she needed someone to blame. Loki seemed like a good candidate. Everyone else hated him, too.

She continued, trying to change the subject. "I don't see why you had to drive me." She respected Natasha, but being in close proximity with her in a small, enclosed space? She felt like a fish in a bowl with a cat above.

"I needed to be sure that weren't thinking of doing anything stupid." Natasha said. What did the assassin think she was going to do when she was leaving the alley? Yell abuse as she was leaving? Tell him she wanted kill him? Yeah, that was really crossing the line.

"Me?" she looked aghast, her words full of snark and contempt. "Me, do something stupid? What would make you worried that I would do something stupid?"

"That." Natasha replied, referring to Lana's words. "He could kill you." The redhead continued.

"And so could you, or Clint, or _anyone_ else for that matter." Natasha could kill her in literally hundreds of ways, and could probably kill her with a pineapple if she so chose to. Maybe even yoghurt, if she tried _really_ hard.

"Not like him."

Lana shook her head at her. "And why is he so different? What could he honestly do that you couldn't? In the end, death is still the same. D'you know why? Because it's _permanent_." She said, practically spelling out the last word.

"He uses your words and your past against you, not just violence."

"That's what you do!" She looked at the window, shaking her head, thinking back to the first time she met the infamous Natasha Romanov. "Hell, that's what you did, to me!"

"Not like him. He gets in your head, even when he's not there. He takes everything you care about and twists it."

"Isn't that what the Maximoff girl does?"

"Yes, actually, except she's on our side now. Just," she started, her eyes containing concern, "be careful. Enough people have died because of him. You don't need to be another casualty."

"Yeah tell me about. Wait," she looked at Natasha with new eyes. "Would that be a caring tone I detect in you voice, Agent Romanov?"

The agent in question kept her eyes the road as she parked flawlessly in between two cars, directly in front of the apartment complex. Lana huffed as it became apparent that Natasha wasn't going to grace her with a response.

"Be quick. I don't like to be kept waiting." the stoic agent said, turning her head to observe the street.

"Don't I know it." The blonde said as she slammed the car door, heading up the stairs to her apartment.

What would she need for her eventual demise at the Tower, she thought as she unlocked her door, throwing her keys on the kitchen counter. She began rifling through her closet, throwing acceptable things onto her bed. She then pawed through her underwear drawer, and threw some more on her bed. She then pulled her purple suitcase out of the closet, opened it, and threw everything on the small pile on her bed into it, and zipped it shut.

"God, what did I get myself into?" She asked the mirror on the wall. Like it would ever give an answer. It never did. She turned away, grabbing a photograph and a locket on the way out.

* * *

"Five minutes, eighteen seconds." Natasha said as she threw the suitcase into the trunk. "I'm impressed."

"Well, _Nat_," Lana said, knowing that it would annoy Natasha to call her that, as a few weeks prior, she reminded her that 'Nat' was exactly like 'knat'. Who knew that the assassin would take it so personally? Actually, Lana's shoulder still hurt from where Natasha had whacked it. "I try to impress you, you know."

"Grow up." Natasha said, rolling her eyes as the car was started, and they were on their way back to the Tower through the hectic streets of New York City.

"I didn't have a childhood, you know, so I'm not exactly that eager to 'grow up'."

"Neither did I," the driver said, referring to a childhood, or lack thereof. "But I had to grow up." Natasha said in a serious voice. She looked over to Lana, a barely perceptible look of pity in her eyes. "It's about time you did, too."

"I guess Stark never took that advice, did he? Or did you even try to share it?"

Natasha snorted. "I don't tend to argue with rocks." Something about that was unbearably funny about the way Natasha had said that, because Lana was now shaking, almost uncontrollably with silent laughter.

Natasha, deciding that she had laughed too much, asked a question to bring Lana back to the land of reality. "How many bodies were there?" Lana looked sheepishly as Natasha whipped around to face her, the question on her face.

"I, um, didn't count."

Natasha let a out deep breath. "Twelve. There were twelve bodies. And don't waste your training," she looked over at the girl, "I spent two months on you. Of _my_ time. Try using it." Did she honestly think that two months of training was enough?

"I know, I'll try." she replied looking out at the snow as they pulled up to the Tower, another agent taking the car as soon as they were out of it.

* * *

They stepped into the elevator, and as soon as the doors closed, Lana's phone binged, indicating a text had come in. She pulled up the text message, and surprise of all surprises, Stark had texted.

_When you two are done with girl time, get up to living room ASAP. _

_xox Tony_

"How'd did he get my number?" Lana groaned in exasperation.

"Like I said, stop questioning Stark." the agent looked over to where she was standing, leaning against the railing. "What did he want?"

"We supposedly need to go up to the living room. 'ASAP', apparently."

"I hope he's not dragging up there for some stunt he's going to pull." Natasha spoke in an irritated voice, like he had done this before. _Great._

"I'm sure he just has information about the bodies, I hope." she shook her head, laughing. "God, I never thought I would be hoping for information about bodies."

"You'll get used to it." was the short reply she was graced as the stopped on the level Stark had requested them to go to, Lana still tugging her small suitcase along.

"Seriously? Why?" Lana muttered, looking at the scene unfolding before them, earning a sideways smirk from Natasha.

No, Stark hadn't called them up for an information meeting; he had called them up for dinner.

"Lana, Natasha! You're back just in time for dinner!" Stark called to them as they returned. Lana mentally kicked herself, forgetting that she should have gotten Natasha to stop for food on the way back to the Tower so she didn't have to deal with this. But then again, Natasha would've just laughed and told her to deal with it. _The universe can truly be evil at times_.

"Take a seat, you two." he gestured to two opposite seats, one in between himself and Banner, the other between Thor and Steve. Natasha took the one between Thor and Steve, but Lana stayed standing where she was.

"I'm gonna go put this upstairs..." she trailed off, backing up to the now closing elevator doors.

"Nope! Leave it there!" Stark said, pointing to her suitcase, grinning at her obvious discomfort.

"But-"

"Dinner, Whizkid. It's not gonna bite you." She looked at the pizza on the table.

"I think it could." She stared at the food on the table, like it would morph into a vicious animal at any moment, with mozzarella strands for teeth.

"Reaaallly?" Stark raised an eyebrow. "Just sit down, cause either you come sit down or I carry you to the table." He threatened. She groaned, throwing her head back, before shuffling over to the table, to the available seat beside him.

"I dislike you."

"The feeling's mutual." he said, repeating her earlier words, smirking. Stark turned to the other inhabitants of the table. "So, how was everyone's day?"

The majority of everyone, sans Thor, who was busy trying to figure out how to eat his plate of pizza with out making a mess, stared at him with blank stares.

"Okay, then. Great. It went just like mine did." Lana poked the slice of pizza Stark had put on her plate in distaste; she wasn't very fond of American pizza; too much grease.

She saw Thor giving up his attempt to eat the pizza in an orderly manner, and just shoved it in his mouth, leaving tomato sauce around his lips. Loki looked in disdain at his brother, and pushed his untouched plate to the side. Lana snorted. He probably didn't want to get his pristine hands dirty with the filth of mortal food. He glowered in her direction, hearing the sound she had made. She stared back, her eyes not being able to leave his hypnotic stare. She now understood what Natasha had meant. His deep green eyes pierced her soul, or so it seemed. This was not going to be a pleasant stay.

"Hey, children," Stark interrupted their staring contest, Lana's head whipping around to his voice, "stop trying to stare each other to death."

"And you," he poked Lana hard in the shoulder, "don't play with your food."

"Not playing with it. I just don't wanna eat it." She stared at Clint, who was busy shoving food down his throat, hoping for silent approval of her dismissal. That however, didn't come, and she was there, sitting awkwardly while Stark prattled about nothing important. She internally groaned, wondering when this torture would end.

* * *

Finally, after more than half an hour of pointlessness, everyone was dismissed from the wreck that had been dinner, which involved Stark trying out a new robot. It nearly obliterated the table when someone said the wrong word, that would being 'please'. Everyone was allowed to leave, on the condition that they would reconvene early the next day.

Lana was finally able to stand up and head toward the that led to the stairwell once Stark and Banner had finished 'discussing' why robots- that were still in the testing stage - should not be used around anyone else.

"Hey, Whizkid, do you wanna go see the lab?" Stark asked hopefully. She rolled her eyes; he probably wanted to brag about his robot.

"No, I think not." she said, edging away with a knowing look on her face.

"Aw, why not?" he said, demonstrating his uncanny puppy-dog eyes.

"Something tells me that if I went into your lab, you would probably blow something up, which," she gestured around her to the remains of the blanked, ashy, practically gone table that their dinner had been on, "you already did with your killer robot."

"Okay, Dummy II had some kinks, I know-" he flapped his arms around awkwardly. "But it was just an algorithm error!" he whined.

"There was a Dummy I?" she questioned. "What happened to _it_?" she regretted the words as soon as they came out of her mouth, wanting to snatch them and make them go back. She _really_ didn't want to know what had happened to it; it was probably worse than what had happened at the dinner table.

"Nothing. Dummy I is _fine_. It's in the workshop, and you can see it if you just," he gestured to himself and Banner, "come with us." Lana held up her hands, and walked to the stairs. She thought about going to her room, as she climbed the stairs, but decided she wanted to see the roof and the interesting view it had to offer. She walked up however many flights of stairs it took to the roof, and pushed open the heavy door leading to the crisp outside.

She skipped over to the side, and sat on the ledge, dangling her feet over the side. New York City wasn't the nicest city she had ever been to, but it was still a beautiful one, in it's own way, that was. From where she was at this height, the buildings and lights below her looked like a sparkling ocean, constant and never ending, always moving.

"That could be quite dangerous in the present company." said a silky voice behind her. She whipped around to face the voice in surprise; she hadn't heard them open the door, much less walk up behind her. _Loki_. She thought as she saw the god of mischief, _great. Just great_.

"What the hell are you doing up here?" she said, quickly scooting herself away from the edge and standing up to face his menacing stature.

"You aren't fond of my presence, are you?" he spoke, ignoring her question.

She let out a nervous laugh. "No, not particularly. But you didn't need to ask to find that out."

"I make you uncomfortable." _Uh, duh. Yeah, you do_._ Crazy god, responsible for my brother's death? Yes, oh so uncomfortable._

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, you do." she responded, rapidly nodding her head up and down.

He looked down at his hand, flipping it over, observing his palm. "Why do they require your assistance? They don't need 'an extra set of eyes', as you put it." He looked back up to her - which was actually down, considering he towered over her - and took a step forward.

"You're right, they really don't. But I don't see," she said, edging to the door, "why you need to know."

"I don't." He said simply, smiling.

"Then why ask?" she nearly shouted in response, throwing her arms up in question.

"I don't need to know; I _want_ to know. I _want_ to know why the great and mighty SHIELD thought that a mere mortal could be privy as to whether my words are true or not." he spat, moving even closer to her than he was before, suddenly a down-right menacing look on his face.

"So, you found out about that, did you?" she said shakily, nearly at the door.

"I find it amusing that they believe you could." He began circling her, almost like he was in a game of cat and mouse, Lana being the mouse. "A mortal, too upset with the death of her _brother_." She ceased her attempt at moving to the door. How did he know about that? She hadn't said _anything_ near him. She had made sure of that. "I wonder if he felt the pain of the fire." he continued smirking at the tear making its way down her cheek.

"I doubt it." she said through clenched teeth, brushing the tear away with a hand. She had actually thought long and hard about this subject. "He wouldn't have felt anything. No one would have in that building. It vaporized everything." That was always a relief to her, knowing that. "You vaporized everything, actually."

"But you're still afraid that he did." She saw what he was doing; he was trying to scare her, and get into her head, just like Natasha had said. Her life had been ruined enough by him; she wasn't going to let it be anymore.

"Of course I am. Fire is a horrible way to die. But enough about him. What about you? Why are you here, really?" He looked at her with scathing eyes, almost demanding a silent explanation as to why she asked him, a god, so high above her, a question. But for some reason, he answered, albeit with what she already knew.

"As you're director said: to 'help'."

"You? Helping?" she snorted. "Yeah, when Hell freezes over. You're probably here just to get out of the dungeons. That's where you were, weren't you? In Daddy's dungeon?" His eyes were blazing. She smiled at him, this time her face with a sadistic edge; this was as close to payback as she was ever going to get. "Oh, that's right, isn't it? Daddy's not actually your Daddy, is he?" He took a step closer, fists clenched. Those fists were probably going to be in her face soon, but she wasn't going to be stopping. "How far you've fallen. You used to be a prince, and now, you've been removed from the throne. Twice, no less. You are such a failure - " his hand shot out, grasping her throat.

"You know not of what you speak." he hissed dangerously in her ear. She laughed against him.

"Oh? I don't? It seems pretty simple. Prince falls from the throne, tries to get another throne, gets sent to prison for trying to get said throne, gets out, takes back the original throne, and then gets pushed off. _Again_." He nearly growled, clutching her throat tighter. She thought he was actually going to kill her in that moment when a whoosh of air flew past her, and she was on the other side of the roof. She coughed violently, and was hit with an equally violent wave of nausea, causing her to look down to make sure the roof was still intact, and not breaking apart from some unknown force. She then took a second to wonder how on Earth she got over here. But that could wait, seeing as Loki was still _on_ the roof. He looked in disbelief at her, his hand still in the air, where her neck was. He slowly shook his head, and quickly exited the roof, his foot steps echoing, his stomping going several flights down before she could no longer hear it.

Lana massaged her throat, but it had been worth it. She had pissed him off, which was by no means the smartest thing she had ever done, but she felt that his stomping off was a small victory, and it was better than nothing.

* * *

Soon after the incident on the roof, she had practically run down to her room. She had then thrown up in the elaborate bathroom, and had promptly fallen asleep in an awkward position. She barely had time to consider her miraculous shift of spacial coordinates before a unrest-less sleep overcame her.

Smoke. Smoke, she smelled smoke. She shot up in her bed, and opened her eye. Everything was foggy, or more accurately, smoky.

She coughed and rubbed her eyes as the smoke infiltrated her lungs. She looked wildly around, searching for the source of the smoke, but was unable to find one at first. Then she looked over to the wooden desk, which the flames danced on, greedily devouring the wood, turning it to ash.

"FRIDAY?" she looked up at the ceiling. No response. Her gut clenched. "FRIDAY?" she coughed out again, longing for the snarky Irish voice. As she was getting out of her bed, her foot brushed about against something hot, and she cried out in pain. Even after multiple pleas, the AI still wasn't responding, much to her dismay. She stumbled over to the heavy metal of her door. Why Stark needed to have 2-inch thick steel doors? She, and the world, may never know. Lana tried the handle, which turned, but the door didn't move. She pushed against it with all of her body, but it still wouldn't budge. There must be something blocking it, she thought.

But at that time, she didn't have the time to figure out how to move whatever was blocking, because she might have not even been able to, considering it was on the other side of the door. She searched for another way out, and her eyes landed on an air vent. She had always heard Clint talk about how easy it was to navigate air vents. Knowing Stark, though these air vents probably had a laser trip system, which at this time, seemed like a good thing to her; it could alert him that something was on _fire_.

She pried off the metal grating of the vent, breaking several fingernails in the process, which, unbeknownst to her, caused blood to smear on the wall as she was finally able to rip the covering off. She then grabbed her photograph and locket, the only two possessions she cared about, and ran back to the side of the room with the now unobstructed vent. Before attempting to climb up, she whipped her head around, hearing a very odd noise, almost like breathing.

At that same moment, out of nowhere, the smoke seemed to lose its chaotic form, and became more..._ corporeal_ as it suddenly flew at her, causing her to shriek, and at that moment, she hopped up into the air vent. For some reason, the smoke didn't seem to follow her as she made her way through the expansive air vents, bumping blindly into things in the dark. _Smoke. Moving around. How could _smoke_ be moving around, on its _own. She had seen some weird things at her time with SHIELD, but she had never seen smoke that almost seemed to _think_.

She was pulled out of her thoughts suddenly, as she fell through a hole. Lana let out a strangled gasp as she landed on her ankle, the pain slithering its way up her spine. She clutched her ankle in agony as she curled up into a fetal position. She sat there breathing heavily for several minutes before moving on. After several more minutes, she ended up dropping out somewhere a couple of floors below, onto her knees. She blindly felt the rough carpets beneath her hands as she struggled to stand.

She, yet again, felt around for something, looking for light after her rather ungraceful exit from the vents. She suddenly ran into something solid, knocking into the ground as she rebounded from the solid object. She prayed to whatever deity wasn't Asgardian that the smoke hadn't become solid. Light blinded her, as the telling '_click'_ of a switch was heard. Luckily, she didn't think corporeal smoke would turn on a light switch.

* * *

**Tada! Don't hate me! **


	4. Ashes to Ashes

She squinted against the sudden light, before she stared blankly up at the ceiling, breathing heavily. _Please don't be the smoke thing, please don't be the smoke thing_, she thought frantically to herself.

"Lana?" she heard Steve's voice ask in confusion. She looked up and saw the face of the Captain staring in confusion at her. "What happened?"

"I-" What did happen, exactly? Lana didn't quite know how to answer and just stared back at him with a horrified expression on her face. Was this shock she was feeling? She jabbed her leg, where a burn was situated. _Yep, pain. So, probably not shock._

"Are you okay?" he asked as a reached out to help her up. She just looked at the offered hand, deep in thought about the fire. Or more accurately, what was in the fire. The hand offered was retracted when Steve realized she wouldn't be taking it anytime soon. So, instead, he thought of the next option: getting Stark.

"FRIDAY, can you get Stark?" Steve asked the ceiling.

"_What_." came Stark's irritated voice, a crash being heard in the background. Banner could be overheard shouting something at Stark. He hushed the scientist.

"Could you get down to Lana's?" He glanced down to Lana, where she gritted her teeth as she straightened out her leg, seeing if there was any serious damage.

"_I'm busy. Whatever it is, I'm sure you can handle it. You are a big boy, after all._" he paused. "_What's going on, anyways? She stubbed her toe?_"

"No." Steve said, an edge of exasperation to his voice. "She just... down here, and I don't know. Something happened."

_"Something happened? Please, Captain, be more vague."_

"Just get your ass down here."

_"Language, Cap. And in case you didn't hear me, I'm busy."_

"Get down here, or I'll _make_ you."

"_Ooh. So you like it rough, do you, Captain?_"

"Get. Down. Here." Steve clenched his teeth together in annoyance.

"_Fine, fine. I was gonna give Lana an early wake up call, anyways_. _She _really_ needs to see the lab._" Lana briefly looked up. Why was he so desperate to have her in his lab? Did he think he was going to use her as some sort of human guinea pig? She hoped not. She felt that the lovely fire had done enough damage.

* * *

"This better be important, Spangles, I was very busy with - " Stark said as he stopped abruptly coming into view of Lana practically laying on the ground. "Why does it look like she jumped in a pile of ashes?" He knelt down and waved his hand in front of her eyes, getting no response, other than her eyes glancing up to his face before looking down again.

"I was going to the gym, and I bumped into her."

"Banner, get down here. Living Level Three." He looked back to Steve. "What do you mean you 'bumped' into her? The lights are on, for crying out loud!"

"The lights were off."

"Yeah, sure, Spangles." he leaned closer to the girl in question. "And where the hell did she get these burns from? It's not like there's a fireplace in there."

"I don't know. She just stopped saying anything after a word or two. It's like she's in shock."

"Well, Lana, looks like you're finally come see the lab. Just not how I imagined you coming." Stark waved his hand in front of her eyes again. "Blink once for no, twice for yes." Lana just kept staring up. Stark's index finger came down suddenly to poke her in the middle of the forehead, but was stopped by her hand, slapping it away.

"I can hear you, you nimwit." she said as she clenched her teeth together.

"Uh huh."

"Yeah, really. I was just thinking is all." She was thinking. Thinking about everything that had happened in the past day. Loki, the bodies, annoying Loki, the fire. It truly was a lot to think about.

"Well, don't hurt yourself." She slapped his arm. "Ow! What was that for?" Lana glared at him, knowing that he knew well what he did wrong.

"Stark." Steve said sharply.

"I was just..." Stark mumbled.

"Something came at me from the smoke." Lana interrupted him. The two men looked to her. "It-" she shook her head. "It was like it was alive."

"C'mon, Lana. What horror movie did you watch last night?"

"I didn't watch any movies, dumb ass."

"Well, I hate to break it to you, Whizkid, but smoke isn't alive. It's just not possible." she raised her eyebrows at that, and got ready for a long speech by taking a long, deep breathe.

"There are two _gods_, a man from the _1940's_ who looks like he hasn't aged a day since then" she pointed in Steve's direction without sitting up, "Congrats on that by the way, Steve. I'm jealous. Or I will be in the future." she cracked her shoulders, "Where was I? Oh, yeah, a mega-genius who turns into a giant green smashing machine, and two assassins, one of whom was a KGB operative." she sat up suddenly. "And oh, let's not forget; you fly around in a metal suit with a personal AI." she shook her head at him, narrowing her eyes, "But no. Smoke potentially being alive, or thinking, or something? That's not even _remotely_ possible."

"I-" Stark began. "I see your point." He scratched his chin. "But for all we know, you might of hit your head. So, Banner." he nodded his head to the new arrival, who took off his glasses to rub his eyes. Stark pointed to the light blonde staring at the ceiling. "We have a patient."

"Tony, you know I'm not a medical doctor, right?" he called after the billionaire who was darting back to the lab. "Tony?"

* * *

After Lana was situated, which involved several scans and bandages, guard dog Steve at her side, the two scientists waltzed to Lana's room.

"So, let's see this fire that Lana was talking about." He looked to his companion. "Because it's impossible that there was a fire; no alarms went off. And more importantly, _I_ wasn't alerted."

"Tony, you systems aren't infallible." Bruce reminded him, looking up from the tablet he was holding.

"I beg to differ." he said, glaring in Banner's direction as he grabbed the door handle and pulled. Nothing. He pulled again. "Banner, help me with this." the mousy haired scientist put down the tablet, grabbed the door handle, and pulled with all of his (non-hulk) might. He leaned to look at the door, more specifically the lock. Something else however, caught his eye.

"Tony, look at this." he gestured to the crack in the door that looked suspiciously like it had been molten a few hours prior. "It's welded shut. Someone melted the metal around it and - "

"Thanks, Banner, I know 'welded' means." Stark's eyes flashed dangerously.

"It's welded shut." Stark was beginning to seethe. "Someone welded this door shut. _My_ door." He looked around wildly, as if the culprit was still nearby. He then shook the door, and when it still refused entrance, and slammed his hand on it. He thought suddenly, and realized what he had just been doing in the lab before.

"FRIDAY, send Dummy." He began to grin a truly terrible grin, one reminiscent of a child on April Fool's day.

"_Right away, sir. Oh, and sir? The twins have arrived._"

"Joy." Stark mono-toned. "Send them to the conference room. Oh, and wake up everyone else too and tell them to be there in ten minutes."

"_Of course, sir. Shall I give them specific instructions?_"

"Yeah. Don't touch my booze, go through my stuff, mind control anyone, or blow anything up."

"_I will relay the message_."

"The twins?" Banner was distracted by the mention of the twins.

"Yeah, Fury called them early in from their assignment in Russia, which I of course, know _nothing_ about." Stark said with big, 'innocent' eyes.

"Yeah..." He went back to the matter at hand, involving one said robot who had previously almost vaporized multiple people the night before.

"Are you sure that's a smart decision? Sending for Dummy, I mean?" he meant that towards the twins, but that would be discussed soon enough. I assume you remember what happened last night."

"Yes, Banner, I remembered. Just a minor technical failure."

"Minor? Dummy II could've - "

"But the main thing is that he_ didn't_. I fixed it this morning, anyways, while you were working on your..."

"Quantum Resequencer." he provided helpfully.

"Yeah, that." Stark said, as a whirring came closer, indicating Dummy II's presence.

"You see, this morning, I _also_ added the laser cutter." Stark said gleefully as he turned to the previously faulty robot.

"Oh god, that's what you were doing..."

"C'mon! It's not like you didn't notice!" He pointed to Dummy II.

"Dummy II, get through this door!" it said nothing in response, but went to door, placing itself as about a foot away from the thick, steel door, before a small line of light was seen leaving it.

"Tony, is that-"

"Yep." He grinned in response to the prominent frown on his friend's face.

"You are unbelievable." Banner said, shaking his head as Dummy quickly cut through the door, sparks flying. Stark waggled his eyebrows at him. Soon, they were able to open the door, or more along the lines of 'pushed' the door, because Dummy II had, for some reason, cut the hinges of the door as well. Stark's response was 'needs an updated algorithm', much to Banner's dismay, knowing that an algorithm off could be fiery trouble.

Stepping into the room, and closing the door behind them, the two scientists realized something was wrong, very wrong. Lana had clearly been covered in ashes in burns, but this room was pristine; a little too pristine to be honest, in Stark's opinion. It hadn't even been this clean before Lana had been given the room. Stark was the first to voice this.

"FRIDAY. Any disturbances in here last night?" the AI didn't respond, and Stark tapped his foot impatiently. "FRIDAY?"

He opened the door to Lana's room, and stepped into the hallway. "FRIDAY?" he tried again.

"Yes, sir?" the AI responded.

"Hang for one sec, FRIDAY." Stark said as he closed her door again. "FRIDAY?" he asked. No response. He opened the door once again.

"Could she be disconnected?" Banner questioned, standing in the doorway.

"No." Stark said adamantly. "There's no way she could be disconnected. I'm the only one who has access. It must be something in the firmware; not the software."

"Couldn't Lana have turned her off?"

"Only so that she wouldn't hear her. FRIDAY would still be able to report an alleged fire."

"How did no one hear anything?"

"The walls are designed to block over 200 decibels; no one would've heard anything even if she was having a rock concert in here."

"Good to know. Because Lana would have a rock concert."

"It's always the quiet ones, Banner, which means for all I know, _you_ have rock concerts in your room." Banner just raised his eyebrows.

Stark stepped out into the hallway. "FRIDAY? Put this room on quarantine, and run self diagnostics."

"_Of course_."

"Okay, Bruce! To the access room!"

* * *

"Someone _melted_ these wires, Bruce. _Melted them_." Tony Stark said in horror as he looked at the physical panel that controlled Lana's room. Every other control panel was untouched, which worried him. Who already had it out for the girl?

"I heard you the first time."

"This is a serious breach. Let's go talk to everyone. I bet Loki had something to do with this."

"We can't assume that." said Banner, the voice of reason.

"Oh yes, we can." Stark said seriously.

* * *

"Lana! What are you doing up here? You should back in the lab!" Stark said in dismay, walking into the conference room with Banner trailing behind him, and before she could reply, he was already pointing at Steve in an accusatory manner, "You were supposed to keep her there!" Lana rolled her eyes at his childish display. She was burned a bit, not smashed into itsy bitsy pieces.

"She's an adult, Tony. She can do what she wants And besides," Steve rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "she wouldn't listen to me."

Stark rolled his eyes, before turning to the newest members. "Wanda, Pietro." he nodded to the twins, being met with a red eyed glare from Wanda, and a 'Stark' in reply from Pietro.

"You guys sure are talkers, aren't you?" he flopped down in a plush chair. "Someone sabotaged Lana's room." he said simply.

Clint replied for everyone present, which was all but Thor and Loki. "What? How did they do that? Your security systems are supposed to be un-hackable! I'd like to invest in new security."

"Thank you, Katniss, for the vote of confidence. They melted the wires, and then welded her doors shut. Then, they somehow lit her room on fire, and then cleaned it without leaving a trace. So they didn't exactly, hack, now did they? They _melted_."

"I think, then, Mr. Stark," Pietro spoke up, "you need to update your security, as the old man said." he said in an accent, and winked in Lana's direction. She gave him a smile - which closely resembled a frown - in return.

"No, Roadrunner. I was just going to sit with my hands under my ass." was the billionaires sarcastic reply. "Of course I'm going to update my security!"

"I think what my brother is trying to say is that you need to look past your arrogance and assurance in your systems 'foolproof' protection if we are to figure this out." the brunette spoke up in a calm manner.

"Thanks, Glinda."

"I don't get that reference." she said as she cocked her head to one side, a quizzical look on her face.

"It's, it's a movie." Stark put his hands down in defeat. "But anyways, Lana, you're bunking with Natasha now. We obviously can't leave you alone to your own devices, or you get turned into human flambe." the red head gave a single, almost imperceptible nod of her head.

Lana spoke up. "Aw, but Stark, what if she snores?" Natasha sent her a glare. Lana's eyes grew wide. "But then again, I'm sure it sounds like angels singing!" she said quickly, unconsciously rubbing her arm where Natasha had smacked it months before. The assassin in question was opening her mouth to respond as Thor and Loki made their way into the room.

"C'mon, Thor what were you doing? Napping?" Stark said, annoyed at the god of thunder's tardiness. Loki, on the other hand, he wished would have been late.

"As a matter of fact, Stark, yes, I was napping. Yesterday's journey tired me." the thunder god responded, placing his hammer on the glass table. "Wanda, Pietro." While not giving a warm greeting, the twins did not give him the look of disdain that Stark had been given. Pietro gave Loki a glare of such ferocity, Lana wondered if Loki had done something to personally upset Pietro. Besides existing, of course. Although she would completely understand if that were the sole reason for the glare. Her train of thought was interrupted by Stark.

"Great. Okay, then, big guy. But you missed the part of 'intruder', and 'fire'."

"There was an intruder? Why weren't we alerted?" Thor asked, glancing at the slightly burned girl, now bandaged.

"God, I sound like a broken record." Stark looked up to the ceiling. "Because someone deactivated FRIDAY's intercom system and sensors in Lana's room. And Lana got all burned. It was awful." he finished quickly and dramatically.

"It's a bit funny, Loki," Lana said suddenly, "that last night we had a lovely discussion about burning, and here I am, slightly burnt from an impossible fire."

"_That's_ where you got off to last night?" Clint nearly yelled as he slammed his palm on the table, shaking it slightly.

"Yes, Agent Barton, that's 'where I got off to last night'. I'm surprised you didn't realize sooner." Clint pointed to the god.

"No one would miss him. Please, just let me shoot him. Just once. I won't miss." he pleaded. Loki snorted, doubting the assassin's ability.

"Barton." Steve said with a warning. "We need him. Alive. And we don't know if he had anything to do with this incident."

"Yeah, right." was Clint's response with a swift eye roll. Lana gave a short laugh.

"I'm with Clint." She fist bumped him across the table.

"Do you really believe you would be alive had I intended to kill you?" Loki said in an uninterested monotone voice.

"Maybe if it was part of your plan to let me live." Lana spat out.

"If I were to cause mayhem, you would be one of the first ones to die. You aren't dead, therefore I did nothing." he finished smoothly. "And, if you are truly capable of telling lies from truths, which highly doubt you are, you would know this."

"Wait, wait, wait." Lana looked at the glass table like it was the most interesting thing she had ever seen. "Can't she," she pointed to Wanda, "read minds?"

"In a way, I suppose I can. But him," she gestured to the god, "his thought are scattered, and I can't make much sense of them."

"Great." Lana's stomach rumbled. "Well, I'm hungry." she hopped out of her seat, and headed to the door.

"Laaaanaaaaaa. We're not finished yet. We were gonna take a selfie, play some strip poker, dance on the table, sing karaoke..."

"As fun as that sounds, Stark, I'd rather not be mentally scarred for life. Also, it's like seven in the morning. So, uh, no."

"Suit yourself. Pietro and I are gonna have a lot of fun, right, Pietro?" he leaned across Steve to punch said Sokovian in the arm.

"I will come with you, I think." the silver haired speedster said, tapping her on the shoulder, when he had just been sitting a moment before. He turned back to his sister, who rose and joined him.

Lana shrugged her shoulders with indifference. "This is gonna be interesting." was her only response as they tried to navigate their way to the kitchen.

* * *

**If you guys have suggestions, please, just let me know! Review, and all those fun things! And for those of you who have been reading this from the beginning, a couple of changes have been made in the previous chapters. And look! A wild Pietro appears!**


	5. A Flash of Silver

"You know," she looked at Pietro beside her, "tapping your foot won't make these," she nodded to the pancakes she was miraculously not burning, "cook _any_ faster." They were in Stark's enormous kitchen, where she had, for some unknown - and regrettable - reason, offered to make the deliciousness that were pancakes. But Pietro didn't quite understand the fact that it took _time_ to make that breakfast food. He had gone from what she would call almost flirtatious to impatient and entirely annoying as soon as they had entered the kitchen.

"I know! But what is taking it so long?" he ruffled his silver hair in frustration.

"Do me a favor; go get plates so I have something to put them on when they're done." As soon as the words left her mouth, the honey strands of her hair flew up into her face as the wind whistled past her. Not even a millisecond later, the china plates with placed with brute force on the granite counter top beside her.

"Are they done now?" His sister sighed.

"Patience, brother." His only reply was to plant himself on the countertop, glaring at the pan that housed the pancakes. Lana broke his staring contest with the pancakes, because in all honesty, the pancakes were probably going to win.

"You guys are truly polar opposites."

"Yes, we are. But I think that is why we are so close." Wanda looked fondly towards her brother, who was now frantically going through the refrigerator. Her attention was brought back to Lana. "Why are you here?" Lana raised an eyebrow.

"Why am I in this kitchen making pancakes for your impatient brother, or why I'm stuck dealing with Stark and SHIELD?"

"The latter."

"They, SHIELD, or whatever it is, think I'm useful."

"And are you?"

"Of course!" She held up the spatula, "Look at me, being all domestic! I do make great pancakes, I'll have you know." she looked down. "But in truth, they think I can help them. Help them with gauge whether the god of lies in lying or not." she let out a small laugh, shaking her head all the while.

"I don't envy you." A first pancake was placed on the plate that Pietro had so kindly provided.

"I don't envy me either." The blonde said in a serious tone.

"You're like him, you know." Lana let out a small splutter at those words. Her? Like Loki? Oh, no.

"I'll have you know - " Wanda held up a hand.

"I didn't mean it as an insult. When I tried to read him, I got small fragments, if anything." her eyes flashed red for a split second. "It's the same with you. I look at you, and I get small fragments of hate and sorrow, but that's it. There are no memories, or thoughts."

"I wonder if that's because we're both practiced liars." She joked as she plopped a second and third pancake down.

"No, your Fury is also a practised liar, along with Romanov and Barton. I can read them easily."

"Well, that is weird. Can you read your brother?" A fourth pancake was added.

"Yes, but I try not to."

"I can see why. Never get into a man's head; it's a gutter."

"Oh, you have no idea." a slightly disgusted look appeared on the brunettes face before disappearing.

"I'm glad I don't." She turned sideways to place a pancake on the growing pile to discover the first four pancakes were missing. "PIETRO." she looked behind her to discover him devouring the pancakes. They never stood a chance.

"I'm hungry." was his simple reply as he walked up beside and slung his arm around her shoulders. She glared at him and ducked under his arm.

"Then go raid an pancake house or something." she mumbled under her breath. She felt a whoosh of air as he exited. "I DIDN'T MEAN THAT LITERALLY." she yelled after his long gone self. And a whoosh of air? That felt familiar. She shook her her head, and she turned to Wanda. "Seriously?" the blonde asked in regards to her brothers sudden exit.

She shrugged. "Like he said, he was hungry. And besides, now these pancakes have a chance to be eaten by someone else other than him."

"Fair point. I knew liked you, Wanda." the brunette cracked a smile.

"You weren't what I was expecting you to be." she replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lana squeaked, wondering what on Earth that _could_ mean.

"I thought you would be angry, but cold. I can see a bit of anger, but you aren't that cold."

"Thanks. I think." a clatter was heard from behind them as a platter of pancakes and eggs appeared, but no Pietro.

"Where did he go?" she groaned as she saw that.

"He's probably going to get more, so that we might have a chance at eating, too. He has manners, despite what you've seen." Lana looked skeptically at her, before she suddenly found herself sitting in a chair with Pietro sitting across from her. The pancakes she had made in his short absence were already gone. She rolled her eyes, before becoming overcome with about of nausea.

Wanda, who elected to actually walk, sat down beside her, and glared at her brother. "Pietro, you could have just let her walk. Look at her face. It looks _green_." And that it did. _Lana_ was unusually pale as she swayed slightly back and fourth in her chair.

"It would have taken too long."

"For me to walk twenty feet? _It would've taken too long_?" Lana said incredulously, her wide grey eyes meeting his blue ones. "I don't like looking like the Hulk, thanks."

"No offence, Lana, but you are very slow. And you," he sad, giving her body a once over, "do not look like the Hulk."

"One, I'm not slow. You're a _wee bit_ to fast, maybe?" she said, clutching her stomach. "Two, stop looking at me like that." He ignored her second comment, only choosing to answer the first.

"No, you're too slow. So," he looked up briefly from where he was shovelling his face full of food, "why do you hate this Loki?"

"Because he's an ass. And a murderer. He tried to take over the planet. Destroyed things..." she listed on her fingers, "Same 'ol, same 'ol."

"So, you want to tear off his head simply for the reason he is a murderer?"

"I thought your sister was the mind reader. And I didn't say I actually wanted to tear his head off." he snorted. "Okay, yesterday I told him I preferred him burning alive." she admitted.

"Very funny. But what is your personal reason?"

"I read in your files that Stark weaponry was used when you were ten, when your family died." Pietro stayed silent, his fork down. "Because Stark created that technology, you _hated_ him. You wanted to make him suffer."

"Yes." Pietro looked at her with a blank face, a blank face she knew all too well.

"Three years ago, in the conflict Loki caused, my brother died. He was the last thing I had. And Loki took him from me." she leaned back in her chair. "So, I guess that's why I hate him. In Stark's case, he has at least one redeeming quality, even if I don't know what that quality is. But Loki. he doesn't even care. He killed to kill, to cause chaos." The twins continued to be silent, both with newfound understanding etched onto their faces. "So, that's why I hate him. The other night, he cornered me on the roof, and tried to crack me by bringing up my brother. But - "

"You let me know if he does that again, yes? I'll help." he nodded vigorously in affirmation that he would help with Loki. Lana thought it was sweet, albeit annoying and bit too eager for her liking.

"You just met me. You don't need to offer to push some idiot off the roof for me. Or something." he shook his head. Wanda, knowing her brother stubbornness, tried to change the subject.

"Lana, where you born?" she asked, leaning forwards onto her forearms.

"There's an interesting question." she said, internally glad to be off the subject of Loki. "Dubrovnik, Croatia."

"So, you are from Eastern Europe, like us?" Pietro asked, eyes brightening a little.

"Yeah, I guess so. But Dubrovnik, the little I remember of it growing up, had a lot of western influence. And left when I was ten."

"Why - "

"Lana! You made us all breakfast!" Stark said, bursting in, none of the others with him, gesturing to the several plates of food that were mostly gone, thanks to Pietro.

"Ah. Um, no. He _ate_ all the breakfast I made." she pointed accusingly at Pietro.

"Then what's all this?" he spread his arms wide to the mess of breakfast food.

"I plead the fifth." Lana crossed her arms.

"I don't think that means what you think it means."

"You would know. How many times have you been in court?" she questioned. "Or have you never been, because you've obviously never done aaaaaaanything wrong?" She widened her eyes innocently, daring him to contradict her.

"Yeah, I'm not answering that. So, spill where did this all come from?" he gestured to the many plates of food.

"I brought them." Pietro replied with a full mouth.

"_Brought_ or _bought_?" Pietro's response was to just shovel more food into his mouth.

"I'll take that as a _brought_, not _bought_, then. What was the name of the place so I can pay them back?"

"I didn't happen to catch it."

"Of course not." He walked over to a section of wall on the far side of the room, and pushed on a wooden panel, revealing a door. Stark walked into it, and a few moments later, brought out a bottle of vodka. "Some juice, if anyone wants some." he said, sitting down at the table with several glasses.

"Do you just have alcohol closets in every room, then?"

"Pretty much."

"You are unbelievable."

"I know, right? I'm like a unicorn, if you know what I mean." he waggled his eyebrows. Lana turned pink.

"I'm gonna just assume you were talking about the magical creature, then."

"What is a unicorn?" Wanda questioned.

"It's a creature from myth. It's like a horse that has a horn coming out from the middle of it's forehead."

"How strange." Wanda slowly shook her head. Lana glanced around the table, at the two men in particular, and realized the trouble makers that they were.

"Yesterday's dinner was bad. This is even worse, and it's just the four of us. What's gonna happen at dinner tonight?" she asked, a horrified expression on her face.

"Lot's of fun, and lot's of alcohol." was Stark's oh-so promising reply. She groaned loudly and slammed her head into the table, gaining a pat on the back from Wanda.

* * *

"You don't have to take the couch; I'm fine sharing the bed." Natasha said as Lana dropped her bag beside the sofa.

"I know. It's just I never seem to stay on my designated side of the bed, and you're an assassin. If I accidentally surprise you by rolling onto your side of the bed, well, I would kind of die."

"Good point." she pulled out a chair and sat on it. "But we could probably get another bed in here, if you wanted."

"That just seems like too much trouble. And besides, I'll probably get put back in my room soon enough, after Stark has upgraded and fortified everything, that is." She didn't even want to think of the kid of security he was adding to the tower, much less to her room.

"Yeah, you're right." She got up again and made to exit the room before turning around sharply. "Don't go through my stuff. And I expect you in the gym in three hours."

"Why?" Lana said with a horror written all over her face, realizing what Natasha was getting at.

"Your training." the assassin said, grinning, before swiftly leaving the room, leaving a terrified Lana in her wake.

* * *

They had said that she had to live in the tower for an indefinite period, but that didn't say anything about having to stay in it 24/7. This is what brought Lana out onto the windy, snowy streets of NYC. She didn't really know what to do, now that she was out there. If her brother had a body to be buried, she would have gone to visit his grave. But he didn't. That was part of incineration, she supposed. _How pitiful is it that the only thing I can think to do in one of the busiest cities in the world, full of people, alive, is to find some way to visit Alex?_ she shook her head. _Really pitiful._ her mind replied. She shook her head again, this time rapidly, trying to clear it in the brisk air.

She drove her glove less hands deep into her pockets as the wind created a heavy gust of air, chilling her to the core. _Food, I want food_. Because to be honest, she had't had that much to eat that morning, seeing as Pietro had nearly eaten everything. That boy most certainly had a metabolism on him. How he wasn't a gigantic blob, she would never know. Well, actually, she did, but still.

She eventually, after being extremely picky in deciding what greasy food looked the most edible, picked a hamburger. After paying, she was about to take a bite when it disappeared from her hands. She seethed. "PIETRO." she yelled, looking for the silver haired speedster.

"You called?" he said, suddenly appearing beside her, eating her hamburger.

"That was my hamburger." she fumed at him, looking at her prized meal being eaten.

"Yes, it was. But I don't think you want it."

"And why not?"

"Because you're late to your appointment with Agent Romanov. She tracked your phone and sent me to retrieve you."

"Have I really been out here that long?" she asked, mainly to herself. "And talk about over reaction." He shrugged, and looked at the watch that adorned his wrist.

"Well, as of this moment, you are ten minutes late." he said, rapidly chewing the hamburger.

"Ten minutes?" she monotoned. "She sent you because I was _ten minutes_ late?" He shrugged again.

"Apparently, she has her reasons. So," he grabbed her wrist, "we should get back, yes?" she hissed at him, as that wrist happened to be bandaged with a burn underneath.

"Generally speaking, grabbing a bandaged body part never ends well." she wheezed bending over in pain.

"Fine." he hoisted her up bridal style, causing the normally stoic New Yorkers to look in surprise.

"Pietro, you put me down right - PIETRO." she screamed as he suddenly sped off.

* * *

**So, I'm not very sure about this chapter, but it was fun to right. I guess it's more of a filler chapter than anything else. But, guys, I was overwhelmed by all the attention this story has gotten within the past few days! Thank you so, so much! And a lot of you guys had been asking if this is going to be a Pietro/OC. To be honest, I'm not quite sure, but it is leaning that way for the time being. So thank you all so much! You guys keep inspiring me to write! And if you guys have any questions or suggestions, just let me know. And if you like it, follow and favourite!**

**-Sisko**


	6. From the Ashes

Lana dropped to her knees on the plushy gym floor near the top of Stark's tower. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I HATE YOU." she half chanted, half mumbled in Pietro's general direction, seeing as she was looking down at the ground, praying that the horrible vertigo would takes its leave soon. But she glanced up at the sound of his voice, another wave of vertigo washing over her.

"Why would you hate me?" Pietro asked, looking genuinely confused as he leaned back onto a wall.

"It was bad enough this morning," she wheezed, "when you moved me twenty feet in under a second. But now? You just moved me several blocks in under a minute, you _ass_."

"Serves you right; you're late. Ten minutes late. actually. Did you go walking in Zagreb or something?" Natasha came in, carrying a bottle of water.

Lana rolled her eyes. She hadn't been gone _that_ long. "Did you _tell_ him to go that fast?"

"No, actually. Pietro has one speed, and it's supersonic. I don't think he really has a concept of slowing down." the assassin replied, a slight chuckle escaping her lips. _Oh, you _knew_ I was going to get vertigo, didn't you, Natasha? That's why you sent him to get me. You evil, evil person._

"I can, if I choose to." he said haughtily, straightening his spine out.

"Then, goddamnit, CHOOSE to next time." She was about to make another remark when she was splashed with cold water, and subsequently shrieked. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" she shrieked at Natasha, who had seen Lana's occupation with Pietro, and taken the opportunity to 'wake' her with water.

"Water. It helps with vertigo." she pulled Lana up by the arm, part of which was bandaged. Lana glared at her through squinted eyes. "We're starting up your training. Now." she finished as she threw a punch in the area of Lana's face. Lana narrowly missed as she threw herself to the floor, landing in an unceremonious heap.

"I wasn't ready!" she exclaimed. "And I'm not even in the right clothes!" she moaned, pointing to her structured, not very forgiving, trench coat.

"If someone's attacking you, do you really think they're going to care if you're ready, or if you're in yoga pants?"

"No." Lana said begrudgingly, and squeaked again as she saw Natasha's foot coming towards her arm, which she clumsily rolled away from. "Could you at least _show_ me how to fight instead of just attacking me?"

"I will." Natasha errantly traced the lines on the palm of her hand. "Once I see what you remember from last time." she once again swiped at Lana with her outstretched leg. Lana, who was focusing on getting up to her knees, didn't notice.

"GAH!" was Lana's only response as Natasha landed a kick evenly in her stomach, knocking the wind from her. Pietro, who had still been leaned up against the wall, spoke up.

"Don't you think that's a bit much, Agent Romanov?"

"No, Pietro, I don't. She could have died last night in whatever it is that happened. No enemy is going tell to her what they're going to do before they do. And pain is a part of fighting." she said, a very serious edge to her voice, almost as if she was daring Pietro to back talk her. He raised his hands in surrender.

"Yes, but you could teach me, _without_ kicking the shit out of me." Lana once again wheezed, curled up in fetal position, gasping for breath. She looked to Pietro. "And I can fight my own battles, thanks." He had a slightly affronted look to his face when he heard that.

Natasha rolled her eyes, and realizing that she wasn't going to get far with her first approach, she helped Lana up. "Fine. I'll show you the basics. Again."

Lana, still bent over, replied. "Thanks. I think." she suddenly got an alarmed look on her face, realizing that this would probably be even worse.

"Don't look so scared, Lana. I'm not going to hit you again. Yet." she finished ominously.

* * *

After half an hour more, when Lana had flat refused to continue, and had childishly wrapped herself in a ball. Luckily, FRIDAY requested her presence in Stark's lab, as he himself had told her to 'get her ass down there'. Natasha had begrudgingly let her go, although former Russian had made her promise she would spend at least two hours with her tomorrow in the gym. Lana only agreed when Natasha had blocked the exist.

She headed to Stark's lab. Pietro had originally been following her down to the lab, but then, without explanation, turned around quickly and disappeared. _Probably twin time_, she thought as she pushed open the glass doors to the lab. Lana didn't quite understand why Pietro was suddenly almost stuck to her like glue. She'd met him literally half a day ago, and he was already trailing her like a puppy. She shook her head and saw, through said glass, Banner and Stark talking animatedly about something on the table.

Stark turned around at the sound of the swishing doors. "Whizkid! You made it!"

"Well, it sounded like it was important. And it was either this, or Natasha handing my ass to me on an ornate platter."

Banner spoke up, turning to face her as well as he pulled off his glasses and placed them on the table. "It actually is important. Tony didn't just drag you down here to show you Dummy II, which by the way, is a lot less murderous than it was last night."

"Good to know." Lana said slowly, remember the disaster that was the night before, and shook her head rapidly.

"But," Banner continued, "we did find something interesting." Lana waited for him to continue.

"I think I'll - " Stark started, nearly hopping up in down in excitement.

"No, Tony. You'll embellish it too much, and when you embellish too much, it doesn't end well." Smart man, Banner. Tony showed his dislike by pouting. "After this morning's meeting, Tony and I combed over the hallway beside your room. We found something interesting." he gestured her to follow him to a cleared holographic table. "This is the molecular makeup of a very strange sludge we found." The holograms showed a very weird black substance. "It's almost metallic, and," it appeared to go to a smaller scale, with a graph accompanying it to the side, "it's - "

"Radioactive." she finished. Stark started a slow clap.

"I'm impressed. You don't strike me as the science-loving type."

"I'm not." She gave him an appraising look. "I just remember seeing diagrams like these when I was younger." she said, her mind going briefly to a different time, one filled with laughter.

"How did you see graphs like these?" Banner asked, a interested look on his face, pulling her mind back to the present.

"My father worked at a nuclear plant once upon a time. But let's get back to this." she nodded her head to the substance, not wanting to talk about her past.

"Well, to start, we only found it in very small areas. Originally, because it was splattered, we thought it was your blood..."

"But then," Stark took over, with a wide sweep of his arms, "we remembered that you got out several floors down. So what could this dark, mysterious substance be, we wondered. So, we took samples."

Banner started again. "This morning, when I cleaned your burns, I remember seeing what at the time, I though was coagulated blood. But after we found this, I tested it. It's the same." Her eyes widened, being slightly creeped out, and most certainly disturbed. Black sludge in her burns and cuts? Well, that was a whole basket of joy, that basket being filled with very angry cobras.

"That's a bit weird..." she trailed off, not exactly sure of what to say.

"Yeah, it kind of really is. I mean did you _hug_ whatever this thing was? And if you did anything else, _please_ tell me you used protection." Stark was trying to make light of the situation, but all he actually ended up doing was making things worse.

"So _now_ you believe me." she blew out a gust of air from her lungs, shaking her head at the crazy billionaire slowly. She wanted to punch him, so, so, so much.

Stark huffed. "I didn't say I didn't believe you, I was just being a skeptical scientist."

"Yeah, right." Lana stuck her tongue out at him. Banner's eyes grew wide as looked back and fourth in between Lana and Stark.

"Tony, she saw something, and you _didn't_ think to tell me?" Banner turned to face Stark fully, and judgmental glare on his face.

"I thought she had a concussion." Stark whined, scratching the back of his head.

"She did. But it was a _minor_ concussion."

"Well..."

"Next time, do me a favor, and tell me something that might help us."

"Fine." Stark looked to the ceiling and crossed his arms. Banner looked to Lana.

"What did you see, exactly?"

"At first," she began, closing her eyes, "it was just hazy and smoky. But then, when I tried to get out, there weird noise, almost like breath that someone was taking after they'd been underwater for a while. It was desperate, actually. Then, as I was getting out through the vent, the smoke, it - Well, it was like it almost started to solidify."

"And then what happened?"

"I noped the heck out of there. I don't really think it followed me." she bit her lip. "Do you think Loki did this? Out of retaliation?"

Stark looked up in interest. "What did you do _exactly_ to get him mad at you? Props by the way. Last time I did that, he tried to mind control me, failed, and then threw me out a window. You didn't go all blue eyed _and_ you didn't get thrown through a window."

"I _may_ or _may no_t have made fun of his daddy issues." Stark smacked his face and slowly dragged it down.

"You did _what_?"

"He was trying to make me upset by talking about my brother. I think, actually, he was trying to get a rise out of me. But then I _twisted_ it around." She made twisting motions with her hands, almost like she was attempting to see whether or not she had Wanda's powers.

"Congratulations. Now a norse god wants to kill you while you sleep." Stark shook his head. "But, nah, I don't think he had anything to do with this. He's right; if he was gonna kill you, he would have done it already. And he's also the type to play with his food before he eats it. This attack didn't really match up with it."

"Great." Lana said sarcastically as she sat down in a spiny chair.

"Why 'great'?" Stark asked, raising his ridiculously bushy eye brows.

"Because now we know that something was in this tower. It wasn't Loki, which _means_, we don't know what the hell this is."

"I see your point." he fumbled around under a paper-laden desk for a few moments, before pulling out a bottle of scotch and three glasses. "Banner?" the scientist with the ability to turn giant and green shook his head.

"That isn't the greatest of ideas."

"Suit yourself. Lana?" he offered her Bruce's glass.

"With the day I'm having? Oh, yes." she grabbed the glass and poured it down her throat, all at once, not thinking that choice through completely. She gagged as the alcohol burned as it made its way down her throat. Stark took that as a good sign, and offered her another glass. She pushed it away.

"No, thanks. I think I've had my fill of reckless things today." she placed her empty glass on the desk. "So, why did you tell just me all of this? Why not get everyone else together? Cause now, you're going to have to repeat yourself."

"Banner and I," Stark said, grabbing Banner's shoulders, and holding him close, "decided that you'd like to hear first." Cute. Bromance. But she would make fun of them at a later time.

"No, actually," Banner pushed Stark's arm off of him, "we didn't. I said it would be more efficient to tell everyone," he glared at Stark, "_together_."

"Fine. Let's get this over with. FRIDAY, gather the team. Again." he looked to Banner again, a pleading look in his eyes. "But let's get it over quickly. Pepper's coming back from her conference in Brussels, and I'd rather not tell her about Lana's smoke monster."

"Oh, god. You have a girlfriend?" Lana said in horror. "I feel bad for her, putting up with you. She probably sneaks away at night."

"Ouch." Stark held his heart. But then, he had a sudden look on his face, like he had just realized something. "FRIDAY, were there any disturbances in this tower last night?"

"_Yes_."

"Yes? What do you mean 'yes'?"

"_At 11 PM, small of amounts of smoke were detected entering the building through the main entrance. And then again,_ _at approximately 4 AM, smoke was detected leaving the Living Level Three common area._"

"And you didn't tell me this because..."

"_You asked regarding Ms. Lazar's room, not the common area, or the main entrance. And the smoke was only detected when it entered, and left._"

"Okay, I'm reprogramming you, FRIDAY. How long did you register the smoke?"

"_2.1 seconds and then 3.4 seconds_." the AI was silent for a moment. "_And sir, I didn't mean to upset you_."

"Yeah, yeah." Stark waved his hand lazily. He straightened himself, and also straightened an invisible bowtie with both hands.

"Well, gang, let's go tell the rest of the gang."

* * *

"How did it get in?" Clint asked, eyes narrowed.

"It floated right through the front door."

"Wouldn't the smoke alarms just go off?" Steve asked, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"The concentration of smoke was too low, and it was only there briefly to be considered a threat. That, though, I'm changing right now." Stark held up the pad he had been furiously pressing on, and then went back to just that.

"But," Banner began, "we're starting installation of old fashioned smoke alarms in each room. It won't look the nicest, but if FRIDAY's wiring is messed with again, these will still detect smoke, unless someone or something purposely disconnects them."

"And how exactly did smoke manage to rip out wires?" Wanda spoke up, while absentmindedly playing with an ice cube from her water, moving in and around the intricate red spiderwebs of her telekinesis.

"We don't know."

"How reassuring." Pietro said dryly from beside Wanda. He gave a reproachful glance to Stark. "And how do we know this threat isn't of your own making, Stark?"

"I'm incredible, I'll admit that. But I can't control smoke. Granted, I've never tried." he looked to the side thoughtfully.

"Stark." Steve said with a warning laced voice, Natasha saying it at the same time as well.

"Hey, don't get mad. I was just thinking."

"Well don't." Lana said. "One unknown is bad enough; don't put gas on the fire. And I remember your experiment last night."

"What happened last night?" asked Pietro.

"Nothing really - " Stark started, but was cut off.

"Bull, Stark. You nearly vaporized everyone last night with that new robot." Natasha said.

"New robot?" Wanda questioned, her eyes narrowing, remembering Ultron. Her brother tensed beside her.

"It's not anything like Ultron; just a drone." Clint reassured the twins. "But yeah, last night? Last night was a disaster."

"Okay, okay. You're never gonna let me forget about last night, are you?" the inventor held his hands up in defeat.

Clint said, "Nope." And then the archer asked a very valid question. "Do we think this is connected to the bodies that keep appearing?"

"Well, that, Robin Hood, is also an unknown." Clint rolled his eyes at the archer jab.

"I'll swab the bodies as soon as I get back to the lab." Banner stated, and Clint nodded his head.

"We cannot fight smoke." Thor said, holding onto to his hammer, almost looking to Lana a bit helpless in a situation wherein he couldn't just smash his opponent into pieces with the said hammer. He turned to his brother, who was reading a book he had taken from the library, looking like he was bred with the current conversation. "Loki? Is there something you could do to fight an enemy like this?"

Loki closed the book with a resounding _smack!_, and looked up_. _"There might be." the green eyed god said, smirking at the faces around the table.

"Please, oh sir reindeer, tell us of your evil, dastardly plan." Stark snarked.

"I'll have you know it is far from evil." Loki mono-toned, like he was expecting this response. "But my - But Thor is correct concerning a gaseous enemy is not one we can fight. But we know that it is capable of solidifying."

"Well, I guess it did rip out the wiring..." Banner trailed off, earning a look from Loki.

"Yes, and it also left the 'sludge'," he didn't seem to like that word very much, "on the walls and Ms. Lazar." he said her name like it was sour. _I guess he's still a bit mad then_. "So we would need to first give it a reason to solidify."

"Aaaaaaaand how would we do that..." Stark asked as he spun around rapidly on his chair. Lana would be laughing if he threw up

"I haven't the faintest idea." the raven-haired god sat back in his chair.

"Well, you're a lot of help, then."

* * *

**Guys! So, I probably won't be updating for a couple of weeks because I'm going back to Sweden for a bit, and have a full schedule as soon as I get there. But if I can update, I will. But also, I'm feeling so inspired to write! SOOO MUCH FEED BACK. Let me know what you like and what you don't like!**

**-Sisko**


	7. Smoke and Mirrors

**Hey, look! I'm back! Let me know what you think, suggestions, ect. Enjoy!**

* * *

Lana was once again sitting on the roof. The ambient noise of the streets far below calmed her, and she certainly needed some calming thing in her life in that moment. She also was sitting on the edge of the roof again, which was a risk with Loki around, but an acceptable one. For the time being, anyways.

When she was around everyone else, she didn't make much trouble or show to much thought regarding the recent events. Stark had just told her off moments before for not being afraid enough. She had shrugged it off. But in reality, she was scared. Not scared in terms of being scared of a bad grade or dropping an iPhone, but scared of the monsters in night, like she was as little girl. In fact, she was terrified of what was coming, because she cold feel it, deep down in her gut. Something horrible was going to happen and she was going to be at the center of it.

_I really hope it doesn't involve fire. Stark's right; I am kind of human flambe. _

The wind ruffled her hair as a strong gust blew, obscuring any other noises. She held her knees under her chin, rocking back and forth, staring into the void, thinking rapidly. What was the sludge? What was anything anymore? It was so hard to believe that only yesterday morning, she was asleep in her own bed, her own apartment.

"I thought I had warned you about the top of this tower yesterday." Damn the goddamn god. She clicked her tongue in annoyance at him, once again, disturbing her quiet time. She released her knees and re-situated herself right on the edge with almost the entirety of her legs hanging off.

"You're really good at sneaking up on people, aren't you?" She was met with silence. She was in the process of turning around when she was practically lifted off the ground. She shrieked and started kicked behind her. She heard a sigh of exasperation as she was returned to the ground, and spun around.

"Haven't you ever heard of a personal bubble? I already have bruises from yesterday." she hissed at him as he let her partially go, keeping hold of one wrist, surprisingly lightly.

"That," he gritted his teeth, "was the fault of your own."

"It's kind of funny. Generally speaking, people can actually control the movement of the hands, as well as _ignore_ things." He scoffed at her, looking above into the cloudy night. She subconsciously rubbed where his hand had been the night prior. Luckily, Stark and the others weren't aware of the entire story, and she intended to keep it that way. She already had to share a room with Natasha; she didn't need to have a body guard at all times to protect her from Loki's potential outbursts.

"The wind is quite strong tonight." The god said suddenly, looking over to the edge. If she had looked over the edge with him, she would've seen the void.

"I'd kind of noticed." she looked behind her at the ledge that had moved a couple of feet, due to her sudden movement inward. "Is that supposed to be a threat of some sort?"

"Do you interpenetrate it as one?" he smirked. His face was truly slap-able, and to be quite honest, a bit unnerving.

"Yes." She gritted her teeth and looked away from him momentarily, thinking of all the ways she could probably get Clint to kill him. Oh-so many ways.

"Then I suppose that is should be a reminder to you to not do anything... reckless." he finished precisely, each word carrying a not-so hidden threat.

"Reckless? Me? What ever gave you that impression?" he didn't respond, but she didn't really need a response; she knew she had been becoming more and more reckless. She swallowed, and spoke, "I'll bite; what do you want?"

"To know what occurred." she let out a quick breath and laughed, making to walk away.

"I already told the others." he the reached out and grabbed her left shoulder, which was blessedly not injured, in an iron gasp.

"Why are you so goddamn hands-y?" she practically shrieked as she tried to make him let go, to no avail.

"Because if I'm not, you might take the opportunity to escape." she stopped struggling. He looked quite serious when he said that.

_I guess he's still not used to getting everything he wants. Poor little prince._

"And that would be a bad thing because..." She waited for his response, not getting a response for almost a minute. His response was very sudden. And disturbing.

"I could end your miserable life." He really could. So easily. Just like her brother. _Just like Alex_.

"But I, unfortunately, won't be given an opportunity to do so in the near future. I would be put in irons before I disposed of your body." It was actually rather sad that he was so upset that he couldn't kill her. " My only option is to discover the motive of this entity." The motive of this entity? What about the motives of Loki?

"You're just _so_ pleasant, aren't you?" He gave her a look of mockery before releasing his firm hold.

"Fine." She wanted him to leave her alone desperately. She would rather be spending her free time with Stark. "I woke up. There was smoke and fire. As I was leaving, the smoke turned... life like." she shuddered, remember the dark and the smoke. "And that's it."

"And you're certain of that?"

"As certain as I am that if I don't get off this roof soon, I'm jumping." she poked him in the sternum. "And _you're_ going to be the one that gets in trouble." From the corner of her eye, she could see his hand twitching, as if it were about to grab that finger and shatter it. What felt like a gale force wind blew across the surface of the roof, bringing along with it snow. She shivered hugging her arms to her torso.

"I'm going in. If you grab me again, I'm calling Stark. I hear he has a robot that needs testing." she said, turning away, and was unobstructed all the way to the door. But then a thought came over her and she whipped around to Loki.

"It would have been anyone's room that was on fire. Why did it choose me?" It was a valid point. Out of everyone in the tower, _she_ had been the one targeted. Her. The one who didn't have powers, or an enormous wealth, or extreme importance.

"I'm not certain."

"No one is." she bit her bottom lip. "I take it you don't like not knowing?" her question remained unanswered in the cold air. "I take it that was a stupid question then." she said, turning away once again, before a sudden burst of wind washed over her, one very different from the oncoming storm.

"I was looking for you." An accented voice said, the sound appearing out of thin air. She groaned. Another annoying thorn in her side. He, after the meeting, had followed her literally everywhere. When she went outside, when she went to get something to eat, even when she went to get an update from Banner. Something told her in the back of her mind that his sister had gotten him to stick to her like glue. She already was dealing with a malicious god; she didn't need a watch dog, too. She snapped at him.

"Seriously? Can't I get a break?" Pietro gave her a questioning, affronted look, as he leaned against the door way and crossed his arms. He then raised an eyebrow, almost questioning her. She shook her head at him for missing the obvious, and pointed behind her.

"I was just talking to..." she looked around to where the trickster had been before. Not even a foot print in the fast falling where he had been existed. She shook her head. "No one."

"What do you want?" she asked as a practiced face of indifference covered her features. A tinge of fear showed through her eyes, however, Pietro taking notice.

"I wanted to know where you went off to. The old man lost the crazy god again."

"Doesn't surprise me." she said, reaching for the handle of the door.

"Are you all right?" Concern was written all over his face.

"I'm fine." She said, trying to smile, but only being able to manage a small quirk of her lips.

"Are you - "

"Maximoff. I'm fine. I'm gonna go see the science geeks now." she mono-toned, leaving the for once still speedster behind her.

* * *

"I scoured the bodies." Banner said, gesturing to the large number of black body bags lining several tables. "There was _nothing_. It was like they were cleaned, like your room, actually." She leaned back against one of the few body-free tables in Stark's massive lab.

"So there's no sludge?" she asked, thinking of what he had found on her and in the hallway.

"No sludge." he confirmed.

"So it could be connected, but it might not be?"

"Yeah. Another thing. It looks like these bodies were moved separately to the alley. It's a bit weird, too, that they were all together."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. I thought normally they were spread across the city."

"They are. Just not this time." Lana shook her head, both in disgust and in tiredness.

"Where's Stark?" Lana droned, wondering why the billionaire wasn't in the room trying to tack on a pun at the end of this news.

"He said something about security."

"You should have gone with him. He's going to make a mess." Two days she had been in this tower, and too many messes she had seen already.

"No, it's all on the cloud. Nothing for him to break." Suddenly alarms went off, causing Lana to put her hands over her ears. Banner hastily put his pad down.

"_Sorry! Didn't mean to do that!_" was Stark's voice over the intercom. A few seconds later, they mercifully ended.

"You were saying?" Lana raised an eyebrow as she slowly lowered her hands, almost daring the alarms on the ceiling to go off again.

"I'm going to go see what he's up to..." Banner trailed off as he practically darted to wherever Stark was. She snorted and pushed herself up from the table, looking around the massive room for something interesting to do.

She ended up sitting at a cold, metal desk, and leaned her head down for what felt like a moment onto the cold surface. She then heard a clatter across the room. A glint of light bounced off her eyeball, and she looked to the direction of a corner where a small metal box caught her eye. She slowly got up from the chair, walked towards it just as slowly, realizing what it was; a lighter. She finally reached it, and picked it up, examining the small silver box in her hands. She popped the lid and made to light it. The flame burst from the end, dancing around, oblivious to the world, just like Lana.

She heard a crinkling sound behind her. She squeezed her eyes shut, and hoped to whatever deity there was that the crinkling noise she was hearing wasn't from on the table behind her. A loud '_zip_' sounded in the room, almost echoing as multiple zippers were zipped open. _Shit_. She bit her lip, and with eyes still shut, and turned around slowly, opening her eyes at the very end of her 180 degrees. And of course, the bodies on the tables following suit of the lighter, and were beginning to become ablaze.

She screamed at the ceiling. "FRIDAY! FRIDAY!" She was met with no response, and she realized that what had happen before was happening again, except this time, she realized, looking around her at the smooth, grate-less walls, she couldn't get out through the ventilation system if the door wouldn't open. A thud brought her attention back to tables, and she let out an inaudible whimper at the sight.

The bodies rose out of their bags, still aflame, and started slowly moving towards her. She ran to the exit and slammed the doors with all her might, to no avail. She spun around, her back pressed up against the glass as the bodies neared. Behind them, fire was creeping its way up the metal. Stark had assured her earlier that this metal couldn't melt very easily, much mess catch fire. Stark was wrong, apparently. Very wrong.

Smoke began to fill the room, and the bodies stopped just short of her, arms outreached. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked at the grotesque, burning, once human, bodies in front of her. They were faceless, the only identifying feature was their mouths, which were gaping, black, and empty. Smoke waved into her view, obscuring the horrible mouths. All except for the ceiling, that was, which was now roaring with flame, looking almost like rows of corn, on fire. The heat from that alone was unbearable.

She felt something touch her arm in the darkness, and she lashed out, all the while feeling searing pain. Something, almost tentatively, touched her face, causing her to howl in pain as the fiery surface burned her cheek. In her confusion, she fell to the side, disconnecting her face from the fiery object.

She couldn't see. She couldn't breath. She couldn't get out - in her panic_, _she dropped the lighter, and the fiery lab vanished, to be replaced by blackness. The blackness was short lived, however, as she shot up from her position in the chair that she had apparently fallen asleep in, her cheek formerly being pressed into the cold metal.

She continued to sit there for an unknown period of time, thinking of nothing, until Bruce shuffled in, his eyes connected to a pad. He glanced up at Lana, before taking in her directionless stare and physical appearance.

"Lana! What happened to your face?" At Bruce's urgent words, Lana reached up and felt both sides of her face. She cried out in pain when one hand came into contact with a burn. A burn that shouldn't have been there. Nothing else was there; why was the burn on her face? She gulped, and tried breathing slowly before kicking the lighter across the room in disgust, _the lighter that shouldn't have been there, _she realized with horror, and ran out of the room, not giving the confused and concerned Bruce an explanation as to why the blonde had a hand print burned onto her face.

* * *

**Yea! She's going crazy! Or is she?**


	8. Apples

Lana had ended up running to the living room. She didn't feel safe in the library, not with the nightmare like _thing_ she had just had; all books made out of paper were fairly flammable. The roof didn't seem to be the safest option considering the god of mischief would probably find it funny to push her off the roof. And her room was still off limits, and she certainly didn't feel like sharing with Natasha, who herself wouldn't appreciate that much either. That left this room, which was in the center of everything, so, by default, the safest.

Her mind was reeling. If what she had been having was a dream, then how was her face burned, and how had she been holding a lighter? Nothing was making sense. Because, she continued thinking rapidly, if she had died in the dream, would she have died in reality as well? Lana had thought about dying in the past, what with her brother and all, but the thought of dying like that, in a dream, or a nightmare, was horrifying. She felt the cushions of the couch she was sitting on shift as someone quietly sat down beside her.

"So, how'd you get a burn on your face? That wasn't there earlier." Clint's voice asked, breaking the silence.

"It wasn't." She blew air out from the side of her lip, thinking of a response. "I had a dream."

"Annnnndddd..."

"Well, it wasn't actually a dream; it was like a nightmare. The fire came back." Clint looked sharply at her, but waited for her to continue. "But instead of their being smoke that was turning lifelike, the bodies came back to life. One touched me on the face." she cradled her injured cheek. He tilted her head to look at the burn more closely.

"That looks like a hand print..." It did; there were five splashes of burnt skin lining up around a larger partial circle, with only more minor burns in between them.

"I figured as much." On her list of priorities, checking to see the shape of the burn wasn't high up. She thought for a moment and recalled something.

"I remember once, when I was younger, I fell asleep at outside. It was a spring day, I remember. There were lot's of bees out. I don't know why, but one stung me. Maybe my whiteness blinded it. But I didn't wake up from the sting; I just incorporated it into my dream. I think I was dreaming about kings and castles, and when the bee stung me, I was shot with an arrow." Clint looked his shoulders, and seemed to say yet again, without speaking, 'annnnndddd?'.

"Did I get this on my face because I dreamed it, or did I dream it because I got this on my face?"

"That's a bit disturbing to think about."

"Yeah, really."

* * *

Clint had 'left', but Lana knew that he wasn't far away, considering she had some sort of metaphorical target painted on her back. He was probably hiding in an air vent. She pictured him sitting in the cramped, claustrophobic nature that was the air vent, and snorted, not envying him in the slightest.

She reached for an apple on the table. It was a beautiful, shiny, red apple that was calling out to her, just begging to be eaten. The apple was almost at her lips when she felt like someone was behind her. She then sacrificed the apple as she slung it directly at whoever was behind her. The blonde was dismayed to hear it hit the plaster of the wall behind her.

Her breathes were becoming very short as her body responded to her fear. Fight-or-flight become a reality for her, although never actually thought 'flight', seeing how she never even thought to look for a door or another form of exit. She instead looked back to the low-lying table in front of her, and somehow not seeing the value of the bowl that the apples were placed in as a weapon, she picked up another apple instead. Lana was _full_ of great ideas that night. She saw something out of the corner of her eye, but when she fully turned around, nothing was there.

She gripped the red skin of her 'weapon' tightly as her eyes darted around the room, looking for the intruder, who was hopefully not the smoke. The apple, in a whoosh of air, disappeared, and Lana, realizing what was happening, clutched what little of a heart she had left in relief. A whoosh of air meant Pietro, not smoke. Her eyes then narrowed, however, because she had been scared out of her wits by him.

"PIETRO." She yelled, and the speedster all but materialized in front of her, snacking on the apple.

"YOU." She smacked him on the arm. "ASS."

"What did I do?" he said through a mouth full of apple.

"You scared me, that's what you did, you jerk!" she hit him again.

"I scared you?"

"Yes. Lurking around and stealing weapons is a bit scary."

He held up the half eaten apple.

"You had an... apple."

"Well, duh. And for all I know, it's allergic to apples or has a strong dislike of them."

"_It's_? What's this _it_?" His face scrunched up into a rather adorable confused face.

"The thing? Uh..." her thoughts came out jumbled as she searched for a word that would appropriately describe the creepy smoke. She gave up fairly quickly. "The smoke? The smoke that was in my room, and the smoke that was in my dream that pretty much gave me this." she said with a clenched teeth smile as she pointed to her face. His face remained unchanged, no recognition in his eyes as to what she was talking about. She mentally rolled her eyes at his limited memory. "You know, the smoke that Stark was talking about this morning?"

"Oh, you mean the fire that wasn't a fire, that had a creature in it."

"Yes, that."

"And you thought that it would be allergic to apples?"

"The universe is a big place. You never know. In some place, smoke creatures might be allergic to apples." She held up crossed fingers.

"And what if it wasn't allergic to the apple, hm? Where you going to whack it to death with a fruit?"

"Maybe."

"I fear for you."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I might have had a chance. You never know." She said with all knowing grey eyes.

"Except you couldn't hit me. And I don't turn into," he moved his hands for effect, "smoke."

"One day, I'm going to surprise you." Lana said stubbornly.

He looked incredulously at her, before deciding that the best course of action would be to humor her. "One day." he agreed.

"Where are the others?" she said changing the subject.

"Ah, they should be here by now." He scratched his chin. "Mr. Stark said something about needing to show you something, but - "

"But you ran off before he could finish _explaining_?" Pietro's mouth had opened to retort when the sound of loud discussion entered the room.

"Lana!" Stark said, making a not-so-grand entrance seeing, as he was trying to move so fast, he stumbled on the stairs leading up to her. He stood at the top of the stairs catching his breath before continuing, Clint, Bruce, and the two gods making a much slower ascent. Lana realized with a small gut-clenching thought that Clint hadn't been close by after all.

"You _really_ need to stop running off when something bad happens." Stark spoke, continuing his march towards her, stopping a foot away.

"I'm fine!" she said like a child would to their nagging mother.

"Fine? You're fine? You have a hand print on your face. _Burned_ onto your face, might I add. And you're fine?"

"For the most part..." she said sheepishly, running a hand through her hair, catching on a knot, which she scowled at.

"You need help." Stark said, shaking his head in disbelief at her nonchalant attitude.

"Tell me something I don't know."

"No, seriously. Whatever this _thing_ is, is out to get you."

"And why would you say that?" Lana knew exactly why he would say that, but she really didn't like facing reality. Reality really hadn't been treating her well lately, so she was attempting the silent treatment. Fun face: reality didn't seem to take notice.

_Reality is a bitch._

"Watch and learn." Stark said as he pressed the screen of his pad and the wall lit up with a video feed, one of which, she was the main star, but not the only one. Her head slumped on the table, and what came next made Lana's heart stop. There was smoke, smoke that Lana watched on the screen twist itself around in intricate ways until it had some resemblance to a humanoid form as it finished seeping from out of every crevice. Still trailing smoke, it slowly approached her, and cocked its head to one side, stopping abruptly beside her.

What Lana guessed was it's hand quickly went to the side of her face. The side of her face that had the hand print on it. It didn't rest there like a human hand, but dispersed around her head as well. The Lana on the video flinched in her sleep, but didn't wake up. After a moment, the smoke reached over to her hand, leaving what Lana assumed was the lighter. Although, she wasn't quite sure _how_, seeing as she doubted that smoke carried a lighter even when it was corporeal, much less when it was in it's true smoke state. The smoke state that was basically gas.

The video ended with Lana's head popping up in alarm and Bruce entering the room. Lana watched the screen go black. During her talk with Clint, she had wondered if she had the hand print because of the dream, or had the dream because of the hand print. With a cold feeling of dread, she knew which one now, and almost wished that the hand print had come from the dream. Although, that would have been incredibly disturbing too, so it was a bit of a toss up.

"Still fine?" Stark asked, pressing something on his pad.

"I don't understand." She said pitifully.

"Neither do I, kiddo, but we'll figure this out, I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

* * *

**Sorry it's short! I've been loosing inspiration of late, so any suggestions and/or ideas would be welcome!**


	9. Mach One

It had been almost a two week period since the incident involving Lana's face being imprinted by a burning hand, which she fondly referred to as the dream incident. Surprisingly enough, despite Stark's assurances, Lana hadn't been back to the lab since the dream incident. It wasn't even because of the bodies laying on the tables, because they had long since been removed and placed into cold storage somewhere that wasn't the tower. But when ever Lana walked passed the lab doors, she could smell burning flesh, a detail she hadn't even remembered very well before. And she could see gaping holes in the faces of the bodies, which in reality, didn't exist. So, in with the intention of keeping her sanity intact - to a degree - she stayed away from the labs.

On the plus side, thanks to some Korean technology whose creator she had already forgotten the name of, the awful reminder of her dream was gone. There wasn't even vaguely a scar on her face, which Lana was almost thrilled about. Because every time she walked past a mirror when the burn was on her face, she remembered the dream. The lab might have been somewhat easy to avoid, but mirrored surfaces? Not so easy.

Lana shook her head, spinning a coin on the probably the most expensive kitchen counter tops Stark could buy, which is to say, the most expensive counter tops in the world. She slid her fingers along the cool surface, wondering if they were granite. But granite was more than likely too inexpensive for Stark's tastes.

The coin landed. Heads. Her brother had always liked flipping coins.

_"Heads I win, tails you loose, Lana." Alex said, watching a silver coin flying from his hand, landing on the back of his hand. Lana walked passed him, and shook her head at his antics. __She snorted, and slapped the back of her brother's head. "Likely, Alex." She sat down beside him on the couch. "Come on, you know you have to go." He had been debating on going to his work today back and forth for the past hour._

_"I know. But it's such a nice day." He whined, more like a child than a full grown man of twenty-nine. He brushed his light brown hair out of his eyes. He really needed a haircut, she thought. He looked like some lanky teenager._

_"Yes. Sweltering hot. Very nice." Lana said sarcastically, picking at a nail. It was hot out today, the temperatures soaring above ninety. And in the concrete jungle, it would probably be hotter as the day went on. It was very strange for the beginning of May._

_"You know exactly what I mean, Lana. The sky is blue, clear, and it feels like I don't have a care in the world." He sat back with his feet up on the table, which Lana shoved off almost immediately; she had just cleaned that table, and he was _not_ getting smudges on it._

_"I think you do have a couple of 'cares'. One of them will loose you money of you don't pay attention to it, and the other will keep slapping you on the head." She said, raising her hand, poised to smack him again._

_"But I could call in sick. We could go to the park, just like we did when we were children." He said, his hazel eyes somewhere else. _

_"Alex." She said, with an uncharacteristic look of fondness on her face, as she recalled their childhood. What little she remembered of it anyways. "I would love to; a nice family picnic. But you have work, and so do I." She got up and walked around the coffee table to hand him his papers. He looked at them with disdain, but took them anyways._

_"Now, go do something amazing, and life changing. Like Papa did."_

_"Like Papa." He agreed. He ruffled her hair, messing up her half an hour's work on it. She clicked her tongue in annoyance, but a small quick of her lips broke her annoyed facade. No matter how much she wanted to, she could never stay mad at him._

_She called out to him as he was on the door's threshold. "Alex! After work, let's go get something to eat, and we can go to the park." Her brother cracked a smile, and nodding, before looking at his watch, a look of alarm as he realized the time. He quickly waved, before disappearing._

She shook her head slowly, and tossed the coin somewhere behind her. She hadn't meant to think of Alex, especially not that memory. That was the last time she had seen him. Ever. She gulped, but turned around slowly as voices down the stairs wafted towards her. She identified them immediately. _Nat and Clint. Excellent_. She clasped her hands together, and looked rather like a comic villain, planning something dastardly and evil to the unsuspecting heroes. Well, no, actually. She wasn't going to do anything of the sort. But getting in the gleeful mood that she felt film villains would be in when unleashing their horrific plan would help her a bit. She would have cackled loudly, except then she wouldn't be able to hear what was being said.

"What if something happens to her?"

"We deal with it."

"Nat, something weird is going on, and talking like you want to use her as bait." Clint said, fiercely. Bait? Lana did not want to be used as bait, but stayed silent.

"Clint, you know that isn't what I mean - " Natasha didn't finish her sentence, probably not wanting to upset her long time partners. _No, of _course_ not. You don't want to use the only thing that seems to attract the smoke as bait. Hell, even_ I_ would use me as bait, if I weren't me!_

"Well, what do plan on doing with her then? We can't - " The two agents stopped abruptly, realizing the subject of their conversation was sitting at a bar stool, waving at them.

"Lana..." Clint began. "So, how much did you hear?" He asked slowly, like it would smooth things over. Or like he was slowly approaching a hungry lion, hoping it wouldn't see him. The latter was more than likely the case.

"Enough to know that you were talking about me." Lana said. "Where do I fit into this conversation, Clint? What do you plan on doing with me?" She hopped down from the bar stool. "Because I'll have you know, I don't exactly feel comfortable with being used as shark bait." At her words, Lana then imagined herself being dangled above water, with giant sharks circling her below. She shook her head._ Definitely not shark bait._

"So, what brought along this thinking, then? Because unless something has happened that you've elected not to tell me, nothing has happened in the past two weeks."

Natasha, knowing that she couldn't play word games with Lana, said simply, "More bodies were found."

"Ah. I see. Well," she gestured around her, "as you can see, I'm being incredibly productive. I don't need to see any sliced and diced bodies again, thanks."

"Unfortunately, we can't leave you here alone."

"Alone, Natasha?" Lana gasped, being quite comical about it. "How would I be alone? How many SHIELD agents are here, exactly? 100? 200?" Natasha opened her mouth, but was cut off by the arrival of Stark.

"Lana! Gear up, they found - " He trailed off. "You told her already, didn't you?" Lana nodded in unison with Clint's response.

"Yep." Was Clint's ever so eloquent reply.

"Then why are you still sitting there, Lana? Up and at 'em."

* * *

"Wanda," Lana said, exasperated, "why didn't Pietro just run?"

"Because then he would do something foolish." The girl in red spoke, with out opening her eyes. It seemed almost like she was meditating. She would need to with her brother being an insufferable pain. Pietro turned around in the front seat, and glared at his sister.

"I would not!" He complained, loudly enough for Natasha to spare him an annoyed glance before looking back to the road.

Somehow, Lana had been stuck with Natasha and the twins, which was better than carpooling with Loki, she would admit, but barely. But Pietro and Wanda could be loving in one moment, Lana had found out these past two weeks, but completely hateful and childish in the next. Truly like a brother and sister.

Wanda rolled her eyes, opening them to reveal her green orbs. "Pietro, yes you would have, and you know it." He opened his mouth to reply, but Wanda cut him off. "Don't give me the excuse of being twelve minutes older. Last night you went out, and didn't come back until the morning. The night before that you brought girl back, and she set off alarms when she tried to leave the building in the morning. Stark thought we had an intruder. You have been doing foolish things ever since we arrived." He looked back to the dashboard in front of him, and absentmindedly started to tap his fingers in a rapid, incredibly random, pattern, so fast he was quickly beginning to dent the hard plastic.

Their bickering reminded Lana of her arguments with her own brother. Except he had never been the player type. But she didn't mean to think about Alex again, and leaned her head on the chilly glass to her right.

"Pietro." Natasha snapped. "Be quiet. Or _I'll _make you." She threatened. Lana completely understood her threats. In the car ride so far, which had been about fifty minutes, in New York traffic, no less, Pietro had practically buzzing around the interior of the car. She shook her head. He could learn a thing or two about patience from his sister. Granted, Lana was being a hypocrite. She was never patient, except when it came to the masterful making of detectable food.

Pietro visibly gulped. A few days prior, in training, Pietro had all but declared that no one in the Avengers, save his sister, could 'take him down'. Natasha very quickly proved him wrong. Lana still wasn't quite sure how she'd done it, but she had. One minute, Pietro had been standing, and the next he wasn't.

"Okay, Pietro, you can get out. We're here." Natasha said, her normally monotone voice displaying relief.

* * *

Again, there were several bodies this time, numbering to be thirteen. Lana was _very_ proud of her counting abilities, she would have you know. But that would be breaking the forth wall.

She meandered around the small park that she didn't even know the name, avoiding the yellow tape, long since having given her two-cents to Loki's truth telling. She rolled her eyes, wondering why she even had to put up with it any more, because honestly, he had been telling the truth. As far as she could tell, anyways.

Lana plopped herself down on a park bench, and watched the scene before her. Loki and Thor were arguing about something; Stark and Bruce were poking around one of the bodies with particular interest, poking and prodding the ground around it; and the rest? She quite honestly didn't know, seeing as the majority of the little park was coordinated off.

A whoosh of air brought her back to reality.

"Bored of the bodies already, Pietro?"

"You could say that." He said lightly. "But I have also seen enough death, don't you think?" He implored her, his big blue eyes speaking volumes as to what he'd seen.

"There isn't a person here who would disagree with you."

"Ah, actually, I believe one of the gods would." He nodded his head to the one in question, which came no surprise to Lana, was Loki. Of course it was.

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. And gods, Pietro?" She questioned, giving him a raised eyebrow. "They just happen to live longer. A lot longer. And they're a bit undestructible."

Pietro stayed silent. "What'd he say, anyways?" She sighed sitting back on the inadequate support of the wooden bench. "That next time you would be a body like these?"

"Ah, no. He said that 'I shouldn't be so surprised by the number of bodies here, because there would surely be more next time'. Or something similar to that. I don't remember the exact words he used."

"He does tend to use archaic words." Lana mused. Thinking over the past two weeks, and on the rare occasion that they had spoken, it was full of of pedantic words on his part. Snarky, over-used words on hers. Such fun.

She leaned her head back, looking at the dark grey clouds that would soon produce snow.

"If you wanted to poke Loki while running at mach one, I wouldn't be opposed to that." She said, walking away quickly, her words lingering in the air.

* * *

**For reference, mach one is 1195 KPH.**

**Review, because I really need some ideas as to where this is going!**


	10. A Vision of Tapioca

Lana had been humming to herself for five minutes, and she could tell that her tune was irritating the agent assigned to babysit her while she was cooking. _Cooking_. Not hanging out on the roof, or walking around Manhattan, but cooking. Did they thing that she was going to set herself on fire?

"Ms. Lazar, could you please - "

"Stop humming?" She finished for him. She pretended to think about it for a moment, her humming having stopped. She shook her head. "Nope." She looked back to the boiling water as she reached for the tapioca, while her humming resumed.

The agent sighed loudly and rubbed his face. She could almost hear him questioning his life choices when she she felt a presence in the room, one that the agent didn't notice. _Bad agent_. But who could the presence be? Not Pietro; he would have just appeared beside her and tried to steal her food. Stark wasn't quiet, Natasha would be talking with the agent, Clint would also be trying to eat her food, Wanda would say something, and Thor was out somewhere with a 'Jane Foster'. That left one option.

"What, Loki?" She asked in a very irritated voice, trying to have an edge to her voice to not let him know how scared she was. Lana turned around, and Loki raised an eyebrow. He didn't buy the whole 'fearless facade' thing.

"And you're a shitty guard." She bluntly told the agent, who had whipped around to face the imposing god, and was gulping in a not so subtle way. _Way to be brave, nimwit._

"We should talk."

"Talk about what? The weather? Well, for starters, it's freaking cold. It's supposed to snow today. Did you know that?"

"You're acting like a child." Loki said through gritted teeth. She was getting to him? Good.

"Who says I'm acting?" She asked as she turned back to her boiling tapioca. Behind her, she heard the cocking of a gun, meaning Loki had apparently moved, and the not very useful agent was doing something surprisingly useful.

"Your little mortal weapon won't damage me, I hope you know."

"Of course he knows. It's more for letting you know that your doing something wrong. Ya know, instead of using his words." She glared at the agent, whose face was stricken as he shakily held the gun. "Seriously, where do they find you people?"

She pointed to Loki with a wooden spatula. "Really, what do we need to talk about? Are you going to say something cryptic, threaten to kill me, and then vanish?"

"As much as I would like to, no."

"Well, that's a relief." The agent was truly shaking now; beads of sweat dripped down his face as Loki smirked. And to think, half an hour before, the agent had been boasting to Natasha at how safe he would keep her. Suck up.

"Leave." The now grinning Loki told the agent. And what did the agent do? The agent _left_. He left her, in a room, with a homicidal maniac. She was glad that she never asked his name.

"Thanks a lot!" She called at his quickly retreating back. She tapped the wooden spatula against the stone counter top. It wasn't much of a weapon, but she could always fling her beloved tapioca at Loki in defense.

"Have you had anymore dreams?"

She was hesitant to answer, and not just because she was trying to be difficult. Because the truth was, she had indeed had more dreams, although all of them had stayed dreams; no more burns or video proof. The beginnings of the dreams all varied, just like a normal dream. But they always ended with fire and smoke, the creature never making an appearance.

"Yes." She answered, but snarkily. "Lot's of dreams. Dreams about food, boys, and more food."

He sighed. "Dreams regarding the creature." He clarified.

"Nope." She popped the 'p', and turned back to her food.

The back of her neck prickled. "Loki, if you touch me, I will pour this water on you - which is boiling, by the way - and you'll melt faster than Frosty on Waikiki beach." She narrowed her eyes and turned around to face him, hand on the handle of the pot for emphasis. He was bristling with indignation, indignation, she assumed, was from being called 'Frosty'. She'd have to keep using that one.

"I-" He started very angrily, taking a step forward, but stopped when intricate twirls of red light halted his progress.

Lana found Loki to be scary. Horrifying, really. But there was just something about Wanda's presence - and red eyes - that made Lana very glad that the green eyed Sokovian was her friend. That friend currently having red eyes. Her hands were held out, and her characteristic, red-lighted telekinesis made her have a sinister glow.

"Step away, Asgardian." She thought for a moment. "If you value your continued existence, that is." Loki looked like he wanted to say something, but he stood in slight disbelief that a mere human could have such powers. Or that's what Lana thought he was thinking. He could be staring into Wanda's eyes, and Lana could understand that; it happened all the time to her.

Loki gave Lana a look to say 'this will continue later', and he turned on his heel.

"Stay frosty, Frosty!" She called after him, and she could hear a something breakable having its live being taken away violently as Loki stormed away. She turned to her friend.

"I think I love you. I think I really do." She said, pretending to swoon in Wanda's direction.

"Why does he keep bothering you?" The Sokovian asked, leaning on the counter beside her.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. At first, I thought he was trying to rile me up. Which," she stirred the tapioca, "he still does. But I think he thinks I'm not saying something. Or remembering something. Or..." she shrugged her shoulders, "something." she finished lamely.

A patter of foot steps interrupted them, and a tall girl with light brown hair waltzed in the room.

"Have you guys seen Peter?" She asked. Lana exchanged a look with Wanda, who shrugged her shoulders. Was one of the agents in the building named Peter?

"Uh, no. 'Fraid not." Lana said slowly, taking in the girl's appearance fully. She had an enviable shape, and was wearing a sparkly little number that looked like it belonged at an upscale club, not Stark's kitchen.

"Are you sure?" She asked. "He's like this tall," she held her hand a good few inches above her head, "and gorgeous blue eyes."

"Oh, and kinda silver hair." She tacked on as an after thought.

Wanda rolled her eyes. "You mean Pietro."

"No, I'm pretty sure his name is Peter." The girl seemed pretty adamant about the speedster's name.

"Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart." Lana whispered.

"And what are you guys? His cooks?"

"No, and if he eats this I'm pouring it on his head." The girl seemed to take offence to that.

Like it was a scandal, "Good help these days is just so hard to find." She spun around, leaving Lana silently laughing and Wanda fuming, as she called out for 'Peter'.

Lana started laughing hysterically once they couldn't hear the girl anymore. She'd never met one of the girls that Pietro brought back from his wild nights. And she didn't even get his name right!

As if on que - although he was probably summoned by Wanda through that weird twin link of theirs - Pietro zoomed into the kitchen.

"Is she still here?" He whispered, looking around like someone would pop out at him.

Lana and Wanda looked to each other, and through silent communication, decided to play dumb. "Who?" Lana asked, stirring the tapioca one last time before taking it off the heat, tapping the spoon as she did so.

"The girl." He whispered harshly, looking over his shoulder.

"What girl?" Wanda asked, walking to the other side of the kitchen to reach the bowls. She didn't bother walking back with them, but rather sent them to Lana on red spirals.

"The girl." He tapped his foot. "The girl with brown hair."

"The girl who doesn't remember your name?" Wanda accused.

Pietro nodded his head vigorously. "Yes, that one."

"Maybe..." Lana trailed off. "Why?"

"I've been avoiding her all morning. She says we 'share a special connection'." He shook his head in almost disgust.

"So, you've been letting a civilian wander around Stark's tower?" Lana raised her eyebrows.

"Well, yes, but-" He was interrupted by the slow footsteps of one very pissed off looking Natasha. She addressed Lana, a smidgen of an apology in her eyes.

"I heard Agent Hall left. He's been reassigned." So that was his name. Agent Hall. The coward. Reassigned to the Antarctic, no doubt. Natasha then turned her head to glare at the gulping Pietro.

"You mean to tell me that one of you one night stands has been in effectively SHIELD's second base for several hours, _unattended?_" She hissed, her small frame making Pietro take several steps backward.

"I-, but-"

"No buts, Pietro. Make her leave. Now." She stopped her menacing march forward and jabbed him in the chest. She then took a bowl of tapioca, and started nonchalantly walking away, adding, "And this won't happen again, Pietro." It wasn't a question, or a request; it was a statement.

As the red-head disappeared, Wanda looked at Pietro with amusement in her eyes, twinkling with his misfortune. "You deserved that."

"Shut up." And he was gone, off to no doubt find the girl. Lana felt a small twinge. It wasn't quite jealously, more on the verge of disappointment. And she didn't know why.

Wanda waved a hand in front of her face. "Lana." Lana looked up at her name. The scarlet witch held out a bowl to her.

"I don't know what this is, but I think I'd like to try it." Lana shook her head in utter disbelief.

"You don't know what tapioca is? Oh, you poor, poor child." She feigned a pain to the heart. Her companion looked over Lana's shoulder, her light green eyes widening.

"Vision." Wanda smiled a smile that wasn't quite like a smile that Lana had seen her make before. It was almost like... Oh, it was wasn't it. It was more than admiration-

Wanda elbowed Lana in the stomach. The Sokovian was stronger than she looked, Lana thought as she bent over. A couple of thoughts must have gotten through to Wanda then. _Great job, Lana_. The blonde looked toward the stranger in anticipation of an explanation.

* * *

**I apologize! I've been busy. With stuff. And feedback! I need it! I need to know if I'm going too fast or too slow! Tack!**


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